BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE
 
 Born of the Crucible 
 
 THE CORNHILL COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON
 
 Copyright, 1919, by 
 
 THE CORNHILL COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved
 
 TO MY WIFE
 
 CONTENTS 
 Chapter 
 
 I WHERE THE SKY BEGINS . 
 
 II THE NEW BAGDAD . 
 
 III MEN OF DREAMS 
 
 IV INTO THE DEPTHS . 
 V SHOES AND SOCIALISM 
 
 VI CRESCENDOES . 
 
 VII DANGER SIGNS 
 
 VIII THE GOPHER HOLE . 
 
 IX WITHIN THE GATES . 
 
 X STORM CLOUDS 
 
 XI THE GIRL OF THE TRAIN . 
 
 XII DOLDRUMS 
 
 XIII THE TEMPEST 
 
 XIV WILLIAMS . 
 
 XV THE MOUNTAINS SUMMON 
 
 XVI THE SLIP ON THE DIKE . 
 
 XVII THE RETURN 
 
 XVIII THE REAL THARNY 
 
 XIX PADDY SKIFF 
 
 XX THE SCHEMERS 
 
 XXI THE UNKINDEST CUT 
 
 XXII CLEARING THE SLATE 
 
 XXIII IN SPRINGTIME 
 
 XXIV THE M. N. 
 
 XXV SACRED PRECINCTS . 
 
 XXVI THARNEY GOES FISHING . 
 
 XXVII THE ARROW . 
 
 XXVIII THE FIGHT IN THE GLEN . 
 
 XXIX DREAMS AND THE GIRL . 
 
 XXX CRUNCH PAYS 
 
 XXXI MARY 
 
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 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE
 
 CHAPTER I 
 WHERE THE SKY BEGINS 
 
 While still in his third year at Stanford University, 
 Dan Bradshaw, quite inadvertently, had stumbled upon 
 a piece of rather startling information facts that were 
 not only startling, but disconcerting and disturbing. 
 
 Always had he lived with his Aunt Ruth and his 
 Uncle Sim in a beautiful little California village. They 
 had brought him up from childhood; they had clothed 
 him and taken care of him ; when he had been old enough, 
 they had sent him to school; and later, by the utmost 
 economy, they had saved enough to send him to college. 
 
 And then suddenly, Dan had learned that these good 
 people were not related to him at all. Merely, out of the 
 kindness of their hearts, they had taken him in, when he 
 had been left an orphan. Dan's mother had died not long 
 after she had heard the hearty wail of her first-born. His 
 father had met with an unfortunate accident, but a few 
 weeks before. 
 
 Of course, Dan had reasoned, as soon as he had 
 learned the true status of his 'uncle' and 'aunt', it was 
 impossible for him to continue taking more from them. 
 True, he could never begin to repay them in money for 
 all their great care and wonderful kindness, but at least 
 he could cease being a burden. And then, neither of his 
 foster-parents was young any more; they were reaching 
 the twilight of their lives, and the maintaining of a gen-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 eral country store would soon become too arduous a task 
 for 'Uncle' Sim. 
 
 Abruptly Dan had terminated his college career. Im- 
 mediately he would fare forth in the quest of some means 
 whereby he could begin to repay his benefactors' gener- 
 osity. 
 
 Came then for Dan Bradshaw the call of the east. 
 There he had hoped to come upon the road to fame and 
 fortune, but such a road is as difficult to locate as it is to 
 traverse, and Dan had not found things easy. And while 
 Ms keen enthusiasm and his love of adventure had not 
 been quelled, Dan had discovered many sharp corners in 
 those first few years against which to bruise his head. 
 
 Then had come the time when he had heard and lis- 
 tened to the lure of the great West the same lure which 
 had summoned his grandparents in the days of the Cali- 
 fornia gold rush. He had been unable to resist this call 
 that promised so much of great open spaces, of vast 
 mountains, and above all, of adventure. 
 
 And so it was that Dan Bradshaw had boarded the 
 tourist sleeper of the train at Chicago, that was now tak- 
 ing him to his new western destination. 
 
 At a little station where the train halted for a few 
 minutes, Dan got out and walked up and down the plat- 
 form. From the step of a Pullman he saw a girl jump 
 lightly down. Hatless, but with a traveling coat about 
 her shoulders, the girl turned laughingly to urge a 
 middle-aged woman to descend. But the latter protested. 
 
 "Now, Miss Mary, do be careful," she said anxiously. 
 "The train may start any moment." 
 
 But laughingly the girl continued her urging. "Come 
 on, Jane the fresh air will do you good." 
 
 There was that in the quality of the girl's voice that 
 attracted Bradshaw's attention, and then it was that he
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 became cognizant of her beauty. In the fleeting moment 
 of looking directly at this slender, smiling girl with a 
 voice of infinite charm, he saw the delicate, pink rose- 
 petal clarity of her coloring, the firmness of her splen- 
 didly modeled chin, her slightly retrousse, small nose, 
 and the wave of her brown hair which did not quite con- 
 ceal her delicately formed ears. 
 
 And when the train again was pounding along on its 
 way, Bradshaw, in his tourist sleeper, weaved fanciful 
 day dreams of a girl in a Pullman and wondered if by 
 any kind chance of Fate she, too, were going to Butte, 
 Montana. 
 
 It was in the night hours that he drew near his jour- 
 ney's end, but even before the brakeman stuck his head 
 through the doorway of Dan's sleeper and called, "Be- 
 utte the next stop!", Bradshaw was aware that the 
 train was gliding down a grade chiseled out along one 
 side of the Great Divide, and was winding down into the 
 world's most famous mining city. 
 
 He pressed his face against the window, to get his 
 first glimpse of the city's lights, for he had always be- 
 lieved in first impressions. A swaying of the train sug- 
 gested a wide curve being rounded, and then, suddenly 
 the night glow of the copper metropolis presented itself. 
 Bradshaw drew a sharp breath and sat up more erect. 
 
 Far down the floor of the valley was black-shrouded 
 mystery picked out here and there with tiny points of 
 fire. The pouring of red-hot slag at a smelter dump 
 somewhere off in the center of the valley made a vivid, 
 crimson smear. The encircling mountain ranges seem- 
 ingly were as black and formless as the star-flecked 
 curtain of night, rising unendingly from behind their 
 sculptured ridges. But northerly, the direction in which 
 the train was heading, and somewhat obliquely from the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 window through which Bradshaw gazed, was a wonder 
 sight, a constellation of twinkling lights that lay like a 
 widespread field of glittering diamonds on a sloping 
 cushion of blackest velvet that, so distance made it 
 appear, would offer but smooth resistance to the hand 
 that might be stretched forth to stroke it. And where 
 that man-made constellation ended and the stars of 
 heaven began their ascent up and away throughout the 
 inverted bowl of the night, no eye of stranger could dis- 
 cern. Then the train rounded another curve and made a 
 steeper plunge along the mountain side. The city's lights 
 disappeared for an interval with surprising sharpness. 
 
 Bradshaw sank back in his seat but intent on catching 
 the first recurring view of the wonder sight. The strong 
 line of his jaw relaxed and he smiled slightly to himself. 
 
 "I'll put a handful of those diamonds out there in my 
 pocket", he thought aloud. 
 
 Dan Bradshaw was in the full vigor of his twenty-six 
 years, with his character as yet in a vitally formative 
 period, and his enthusiasm still unabated. Yet, and he 
 winced slightly at the thought, he had been a drifter, too 
 content perhaps to seek only the adventures of life, and 
 the jewels of success were not garnered that way. Still, 
 he was young ; life was good ; adventure was alluring and 
 he loved it a natural heritage from the Indian fighting, 
 pioneering, rugged grandfather of the days of "Forty 
 Nine". 
 
 "Be-utte! Be-utte!" exclaimed the brakeman from 
 the doorway. 
 
 There came locomotive whistle, mellow-ringing, 
 grinding of brakes and the shrill escape of steam. Then, 
 as the train came to a stop, Dan was standing on the car 
 platform, his bulging, telescope satchel under his arm. 
 
 While other passengers were making their way
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 briskly from the train to the station, Bradshaw stopped 
 for a moment and looked directly up at the crescents and 
 bands and loops of bright lights that crowned "the rich- 
 est hill on earth" like strings of Brobdingnagian jewels, 
 casually dropped there, and at the electric glows that 
 gemmed the city. 
 
 From where the Pullmans stood came a sound of 
 voices, and turning, Dan saw a man conducting two 
 women, Miss Mary and her maid, to a big automobile. 
 
 For an instant Bradshaw's jaw set tensely and he 
 fingered the few silver dollars in his trousers' pocket. 
 Then he grinned at the lights whose glittering seemed 
 silently to beckon him. 
 
 "Hello there you Butte", he breathed.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE NEW BAGDAD 
 
 Within the first week after reaching Butte, Dan Brad- 
 shaw made two pertinent discoveries: that while the 
 mining city fascinated him, if he wanted to remain there 
 he would have to seek employment in the mines, because 
 there was no immediate opening for him in any other 
 line of endeavor, and that he was determined not to 
 acknowledge defeat and leave. 
 
 The big-town features of the copper metropolis, its 
 air of ceaseless prosperity, its heterogeneous population, 
 so interwoven in communal interest and yet sharply 
 defined in nationalities and factions, claimed Dan's close 
 attention. He saw that Butte was as different from other 
 places he had visited as was its site. Built on a continu- 
 ation of a slope of the hill, burrowed with many of the 
 world's greatest copper and zinc mines, it was different 
 from any other municipality he ever had seen. 
 
 To describe the city would involve the tremendous 
 task of picturing a physical entity combined with 
 startling, albeit very human emotions of every shade. 
 One may list all the colors in a Persian rug and yet that 
 never would convey the appearance of the rug. Dan 
 thought about all this and finally he came to the con- 
 clusion that he had arrived in a modern, western Bagdad, 
 a place of emphatic contrasts, of ever changing, kaleid- 
 oscopic and phantasmagoric thought and action and pur-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 pose a conglomeration of ideals and ideas, (and lack of 
 them too), of many widely different countries and 
 peoples. 
 
 A few yards from a barren mine dump stretched a 
 well-kept terraced lawn bordered with flower beds. Back 
 of a handsome home was the gallows-frame of a mine in 
 actual operation. There were no gambling joints, no 
 dance hall hells, no shooting out of lights, no sombrero- 
 topped, red-shirted men in hairy pants riding frantic 
 horses up and down streets and howling maledictions. 
 For verily this was no moving picture version of a west- 
 ern locality. And if gamblers wanted to gamble they did 
 so in some basement with all the trepidation of police 
 raiding and subsequent finings that the most effete east- 
 ern community could have demanded. 
 
 As for seeking work in the mines, that rather at- 
 tracted Dan, for it suggested a strong element of 
 romance, and romance was the basis of Dan's adventure- 
 some inclinations. 
 
 Every eight hours, fully seven thousand men came off 
 shift from the mines, while a like number went to work. 
 They all surged back and forth through much of the city 
 with free, wide strides, swinging their lunch buckets as 
 emblems of honor. These thousands of men, who daily 
 went down hundreds and even thousands of feet into the 
 earth to delve for copper or zinc ore, were reckless of 
 the dangers that beset them, and yet as they became 
 inured to peril they developed, mostly subconsciously, a 
 certain nervous strain that often found vent in a devil- 
 may-care attitude, in sharp, sudden excitements, in re- 
 markable generosities, in quick resentments of real or 
 imagined personal affronts, in a peculiar sort of rough 
 chivalry, or in an indifference that could be swept aside 
 at a moment's notice.
 
 8 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 And men of all sorts were in the mines for various 
 reasons of necessity. Half of the University Club, Dan 
 found, worked in some capacity or other far under- 
 ground, even as muckers, as the shovelers were called. 
 
 Bradshaw quickly came to anchor at Mrs. Inez Har- 
 rity's boarding house for miners in Working Lane, a 
 narrow, uneven, steep and, for the most part, shack-bor- 
 dered street which, surviving from pioneer mining days, 
 was now a connecting link between a considerable por- 
 tion of the city and a roadway which led to some of the 
 big mines higher up the hill. It was a rough place and 
 a man had to prove himself ninety-nine percent willing- 
 ness to fight if he hoped to remain there in peace, or even 
 in respected neutrality. The youngsters who played in 
 the Lane's gutters were the final certifiers of status, for 
 when they let the passerby proceed unnoticed, he could 
 rest assured that he had made himself one of the elect. 
 Otherwise he was lucky if he managed to duck the rocks 
 and stones that would be heaved at him. 
 
 Standing in front of Carty's saloon at the head of the 
 Lane, Dan could look down on the busy city, and over it, 
 across the broad reach of valley, dotted here and there 
 with houses still in the course of construction, to the mar- 
 velous, encircling ranges of the Rockies. And if the city 
 and the valley and the mountains were bathed in sun- 
 shine, Working Lane, straggling at the foot of the world's 
 richest hill, was in shadow. But Dan knew that if all 
 manner of men came into the Lane, from out of it had 
 come some mighty people. 
 
 As Dan came down the mine road late on the after- 
 noon of the first day he went to get the lay of the land 
 with regard to mine employment offices and how to pro- 
 ceed with reference to them, he saw a big, maroon-colored 
 automobile stalled at the point where the Lane met the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 9 
 
 road. The chauffeur was busy with a front tire. A young 
 woman in gray automobile coat and cap, had alighted and 
 strolled to a side of the road from where she was gazing 
 over the city, at the valley and mountains, beyond. As he 
 drew nearer, Dan observed two men whom he had seen 
 loitering in front of Carty's, saunter along the road until 
 they halted between the girl and the machine. They were 
 among the tougher habitues of Working Lane, and when 
 he saw them turn their heads and speak to the girl, Dan 
 quickened his pace. The girl ignored them, while the 
 chauffeur was busily engaged on the other side of the 
 car. Then, as the two toughs stopped and regarded her 
 impudently, the girl turned to walk to the automobile, 
 only to find she would have to step around them to reach 
 it. By that time Dan had come up to the group. 
 
 "These fellows are annoying you", he said. Roughly 
 he shouldered the one nearest her aside. "I'll see you to 
 your auto." But as he caught full view of her face, he 
 started in surprise. She was the girl Dan had seen 
 laughingly urge her maid to leave the Pullman and 
 enjoy the fresh air. 
 
 After a momentary flash of surprise, for his speech 
 was strongly contrasted with his rough attire, the girl 
 regarded him calmly. For his part, Dan admired her 
 self-possession. 
 
 The tough, whom Dan had shoved aside, suddenly 
 lurched forward with clenched fist. But Dan, stepping 
 in close, sent a perfectly timed uppercut to his assailant's 
 jaw, and the fellow went over backwards in a heap. The 
 other man rushed in and threw his arms around Brad- 
 shaw's neck from behind, with the evident intention of 
 choking him, but Dan executed a trick well-known to 
 wrestlers, one which in his collegiate days he had found 
 very effective if worked quickly. Reaching back over one
 
 10 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 shoulder with both hands, Dan clasped them behind his 
 attacker's neck and, dropping on a knee, with a jerk of 
 his arms and a heave of his shoulders whirled him over 
 for a flying fall that resulted in a helpless sprawl. The 
 chauffeur came running up, with a wrench gripped in his 
 hand, but the fray was over. 
 
 Bradshaw straightened his rumpled clothes as best 
 he could. 
 
 "These fellows won't bother you any more", he said, 
 and he thought he detected a glint of smiling amusement 
 in the girl's remarkably clear blue eyes. 
 
 Sweetly she thanked him in a low-pitched voice that 
 had the same charming quality that first had attracted 
 Dan. 
 
 , "I've been up on this road many times", she added, 
 "but I never have been annoyed before." 
 
 Then with a smile and ever so slight a nod, she went 
 to her automobile. 
 
 Dan took off his cap as the machine started, and once 
 she looked back at him and nodded. He was still stand- 
 ing there with his cap off when the auto rounded a corner 
 and was lost to his view. Then he walked along to 
 Carty's with the two toughs, now entirely recovered, fol- 
 lowing him. He was standing at the bar talking to 
 Carty, when they entered. Dan turned to survey the 
 pair. The man he had thrown looked rather good- 
 natured, but the other one seemed sullen. 
 
 "Say, you two stiffs", Bradshaw said bluntly, "if you 
 ever pull any more of that kind of rough stuff when I'm 
 around, what. I just did out there to you won't be a 
 marker to the next dose." 
 
 The sullen one scowled at him and made as if to 
 slink to a table at the rear while his companion, rubbing
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 11 
 
 the back of his neck, regarded Dan with respectful ad- 
 miration. 
 
 Bradshaw beckoned to them. 
 
 "Come on now, you two ginks, have something and 
 behave yourselves better in future". Dan placed a coin 
 on the bar. 
 
 The two sidled up. 
 
 "We didn' mean nawthin' ", muttered the sullen one. 
 "We never said nawthin' tuh her." 
 
 "Yeh, we taut we'd see if de loidy wuz in distress", 
 asserted the other. Then he waxed enthusiastic in admi- 
 ration of Bradshaw. "Say, dat smash on de jaw you 
 give Wilkins wuz some humdinger. An' de way you trew 
 me say!" He contemplated his companion. "Les see 
 yer jaw Wilkins it's got a lump on it." 
 
 "G'wan", snarled Wilkins, but gingerly he touched the 
 swelling. 
 
 Carty pointed at the better-natured one's clothes. 
 
 "Better brush yourself off, Snitch," he said, "or 
 ev'rybody'll know where you been." Then briskly: 
 "What'll you have, gents?" 
 
 Wilkins drank a glass of beer in silence, but the drink 
 Snitch imbibed soon made him more loquacious. 
 
 "Say", he began, addressing Dan, "ain't dat gal got 
 de looks, an' she" He stopped aware that Bradshaw 
 was regarding him intently, then he grinned sheepishly. 
 
 Dan finished his beer. "See you again", he said to 
 Carty as he turned to go. 
 
 "Sure," agreed Carty heartily. 
 
 As he mopped the bar, Carty regarded Bradshaw 
 through a window of the door. "Some man that some 
 man !", he exclaimed. 
 
 "Too damn fresh", mumbled Wilkins, and reaching 
 over for Dan's glass he drained what was left in it.
 
 12 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Bradshaw went towards his boarding house, his cap 
 pushed to one side of his head, and a smile softening his 
 strong features. 
 
 "And now Sir Galahad of Working Lane, you go to 
 your hashery", he mused softly, "and the fair princess 
 goes to her castle. Ambrosia and nectar for her pork 
 and beans for you!"
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MEN OF DREAMS 
 
 The next day when Bradshaw came down the 
 road from one of the mine employment offices he was 
 frowning, but when he reached the place where he had 
 rebuked the impudence of Wilkins and Snitch a far better 
 mood took possession of him. And forthwith he let his 
 imagination lead him into a pleasant reverie that had 
 to do with a girl, and matters of great personal success. 
 For verily, he was in a Bagdad, and in Bagdad much of 
 magic might transpire. 
 
 Arrived at his boarding house, he found John Walton, 
 a tall, lithe man with the sobered look of one who had 
 seen much, experienced trying vicissitudes and withal 
 had maintained his real manhood, and Paddy Skiff, a 
 grizzled old miner, occupying the bench that stood 
 against the wall beside the wide open door. 
 
 Paddy, shrewd, possessed of limitless Celtic wit and 
 with mining experience dating from Virginia City, Ne- 
 vada, boom times, turned his twinkling eyes on Dan. 
 
 "Sit down Lad", he invited hospitably, and as Brad- 
 shaw complied he went on. "Wat do ye think of Butte 
 by this time? You'll find it great. One minut ye look 
 at Butte an' it sure do look rough, maybe tough an' 
 the nex' minut it looks bee-yu-ti-ful to ye. Ye never kin 
 quite get it. Ye get me? An' people work an' play an' 
 do doggone near everything on the dynamite plan."
 
 14 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Paddy removed his cap and pushed the fingers of a 
 thick, strong hand through his grayed locks, still remark- 
 ably wavy and boyish for all his years. 
 
 "An' talk of life! Now ye take some mucker that'll 
 come up out of the Benton mine, where I'm tendin' sta- 
 tion, and maybe he'll look like he's been dragged through 
 mist an' mud. He washes up, changes his togs, 
 puts on a new tie an' lid an' goes to a show lookin* jus' 
 as importan* an' tony as the banker settin' next to him. 
 Maybe nex' year they run him for the legislachure, er 
 anything else handy, an' he's a big bug in the burg. May- 
 be nex' year he's tryin' for to clean up a tough saloon 
 an' bing! he's in the county jail. Ye never kin tell. 
 Butte's diff'runt from other places. Ye get me?" 
 
 "Yes I get you", said Dan gruffly, "I'm getting on to 
 the ways generally, I guess". 
 
 "Oh ho! the lad with a grouch!" remarked Paddy, 
 winking at Walton and then turning to contemplate Dan. 
 "Wat's the matter ain't ye landed on a job yet?" 
 
 Came a moment of silence. 
 
 "Not yet just got a rustling card a permit to apply 
 for a job", broke out Bradshaw. "I showed up with a 
 bunch of other candidates at a brick office up there on the 
 hill, got to the window and was put through a course of 
 sprouts. And so I got my rustling card my permit to 
 apply for a job in a mine." 
 
 He took the card from his pocket and slapped it 
 against the bench. "Would you call my getting it a good 
 day's work?" 
 
 Paddy tapped him on the shoulder. "Yer jus* sore, 
 Lad, fer havin' to stand in line fer a short bit to get a 
 card fer havin' to give a statement of yerself, an' ye 
 think the systim all wrong. Lissin' me Lad whativer 
 employin' systim any of the minin' companies in this
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 15 
 
 camp uses come from a lot of experimintin' they've each 
 done. I've met up with all sorts of workin' conditions 
 an' let me tell ye, the big employin' game ain't one kin 
 be let run wild. Sure, some things could be bettered an' 
 they are bein' bettered right along not alone here; all 
 over the worl'. But if ye think the rustlin' card gettin' 
 is cause fer soreness, yer all wrong." 
 
 "Well, do I look like such a tough one that I've got to 
 give my history?" Bradshaw demanded. 
 
 "You've got to take into consideration", put in Walton 
 in his quietly emphatic way, "that no employing company 
 hereabouts is duty bound to treat you as a guest of honor. 
 No mining company here is under any obligation to hire 
 you, and it has a right to know the sort of man you are 
 before you are taken on whether it is by the card sys- 
 tem or some other way. It's merely a matter of busi- 
 ness. Men seeking employment in very many other lines 
 of work have to furnish far more strict accounts of them- 
 selves, and in cases where they don't have to give any 
 such accounts, you may be sure the employers know their 
 men through some other sources." He paused an instant. 
 "Even though I am a member of the great underground 
 working fraternity of Butte at this time", he continued, 
 "I must admit that the companies have some mighty 
 tough customers to deal with now and then, and the 
 efforts made by all the companies to get the right sort of 
 men is not alone to protect themselves, but to protect 
 the employes too." 
 
 But Bradshaw at the moment gave heed only to the 
 vein of stubbornness traversing the granite of his make- 
 up. "The system may have its good points", he conceded, 
 "but", and he thrust out his jaw, "I guess just at this 
 minute I'd like to go haying. May feel differently about
 
 16 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 the whole proposition later on. I don't know." He 
 frowned more deeply, looking straight ahead. 
 
 "Sure", remarked Paddy as if to himself, "a honest 
 man what means to be on the square, whativer his past 
 has contained as to mixin' up with bad gangs, ain't hesi- 
 tatin' to tell of himself." 
 
 "If you pass muster at the Norton, or the Williston, 
 or the Jameson properties, you don't need a rustling card 
 if you pass muster", Walton informed Dan. 
 
 "Then I'll say that the Norton properties are unani- 
 mously chosen to receive my application", declared Brad- 
 shaw, and he tore up the card. "Wait a minute for me 
 Walton, while I wash up and I'll go down town with 
 you" ; he arose and hastened into the boarding house. 
 
 Paddy Skiff shook his head. "The lad's a cliver one 
 all right, an' he'll be heard from I feel it. But he's a 
 hot-head an' that's mostly 'cause he's young yet", and 
 Paddy sighed. " 'Tis me experiunce that a cliver hot- 
 head is always more dangerous than a ignur-runt hot- 
 head." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 It was the hour after the changing of shifts and be- 
 fore the closing of business houses. Heavily laden street 
 cars buzzed along, their brazen bells adding to the clamor 
 that seemed greatest at the corner near which Bradshaw 
 and Walton stood until the traffic officer looked in their 
 direction. Then they strolled along the business ave- 
 nues until finally they took their stand on a step of the 
 public library. 
 
 Bradshaw was making some animated comment to 
 Walton when suddenly he paused. He saw a big, 
 maroon-colored automobile stop at the curb across the 
 way, and the girl of the train step into it. In another 
 moment the machine was gliding away and Bradshaw
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 17 
 
 watched it until it was lost among the press of other 
 vehicles. 
 
 Walton, glancing keenly at the younger man, followed 
 the latter's intent gaze. 
 
 "A friend of yours?" asked Walton with a bantering 
 note in his tone. 
 
 "Not yet", Bradshaw replied, the suggestion of a 
 smile on his lips. 
 
 "And that implies?" questioned Walton. 
 
 Bradshaw shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing spe- 
 cific", he answered. "Many things happen in Butte, I 
 understand", and he smiled more broadly. 
 
 As they continued their stroll, the city was breaking 
 out into its thousands of electric lights, the long rows of 
 street arcs atop their ornamental iron posts shining 
 with a white brilliancy Butte's night life was getting 
 under way. 
 
 At a corner they came across a large group of men 
 clustered about a speaker on an improvised platform of 
 boxes. They stopped at the edge of the crowd which, 
 excepting for the few immediately gathered before the 
 speaker, gave no evidence of sanctioning the utterances 
 of the soap-box orator, a slender man somewhat above 
 medium height, with esthetic cast of face, drooping, 
 graying mustache and dreamy eyes that had a way of 
 glowing now and then, and whose well-modulated voice 
 had a peculiar carrying power. Most of those in his 
 audience were representative of Butte's miners, while a 
 few business men and others loitered there through much 
 the same curiosity that actuated Bradshaw and Walton. 
 
 "Who is he?" asked Dan of Walton. 
 
 "Cronel is his name", replied Walton. "He's a social- 
 ist and the stuff he hands out usually is way over the 
 heads of most of those who stand around listening to
 
 18 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 him. It's the idealistic, impractical argument of the 
 socialist scholastics. Wait until some radical duck really 
 talks 'Direct Action' to a few of these fellows some day 
 and see what happens." 
 
 "Listen!" said Dan putting his hand on the other's 
 arm. "Get this he's saying." 
 
 "We must look to the system which will guarantee 
 the common ownership of the means of production and 
 distribution", intoned the socialist dreamer. "This sys- 
 tem, my comrades, implies the result of the application 
 of the theory of evolution to human affairs." 
 
 "The usual socialist propaganda", remarked Walton. 
 
 Cronel continued. "A proletarian revolution is neces- 
 sary. To accomplish this wonderful act of universal 
 emancipation is the duty of the modern proletariat." 
 
 "What does this fellow do besides speak on corners?" 
 asked Dan as he and Walton moved along. 
 
 "He's a hard-working, mild-mannered machinist by 
 day and a preacher of socialism at night", responded 
 Walton. "He thinks he has a mission of education to 
 perform and he's fearfully sincere about it." 
 
 "That kind of educating", replied Bradshaw, "is a 
 hell of a thankless job."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 INTO THE DEPTHS 
 
 It was at the Monticana mine of the Norton proper- 
 ties, always referred to in mining circles as 'The Mont' 
 and among the most famous of the district's great mines 
 for size and excellence of equipment, that Bradshaw se- 
 cured his first job. 
 
 With several hundred other men of various nationali- 
 ties, Dan, reporting for his first shift, the morning fol- 
 lowing his being hired, disrobed in the 'Dry', as the 
 change room of the Mont in common with those at the 
 other mines was called, and got into his digging clothes. 
 In the Dry, a well lighted and heated structure with rows 
 of steel lockers and shower baths and zinc-lined wash 
 basins, the men going on shift or coming off would frat- 
 ernize according to their moods. The carefree individual 
 with the ready laugh whose locker was next to Dan's and 
 who sociably occupied the same bench with him, kept up 
 a somewhat one-sided but well-intentioned running fire 
 of friendly conversation. 
 
 "First time down the hole?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes", replied Dan. 
 
 "Thought so", said the other with a laugh. "I kin 
 spot a new guy as far as I kin lamp him." 
 
 When they were almost ready to leave the Dry, his 
 new acquaintance again addressed Dan. 
 "Say, my name's Jackson."
 
 20 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Mine's Bradshaw", said Dan, and they shook hands. 
 
 "Well, Bradshaw, you'd best take your lunch bucket 
 along. We don't come on top to eat at noon eatin' time 
 in the mine day or night shifts is always called noon." 
 
 Bradshaw hastily returned for his bucket. 
 
 "Say", resumed Jackson, as they stood on the landing 
 at the head of the steel steps leading to the ground, 
 "when you're bein' dropped down the shaft an* you feel a 
 pressin' in your ears, put your fingers in 'em an' blow 
 against the eardrums. That'll help a lot. Listen if you 
 ever get lost underground an' your light's out, feel for 
 the car tracks an' where they join another set of tracks 
 feel which way the switch-points go an' follow that direc- 
 tion along the tracks. You'll get to the station on that 
 level that way. If you're where the 'lectric lights is 
 burnin' watch the wires. They get heavier as you come 
 nearer the station." 
 
 Dan thanked him. 
 
 "Oh that's all right, Friend", returned Jackson jocu- 
 larly. "That stuff all helps", and he went clattering 
 down the stairs. 
 
 Over the barb-wired red fence that surrounded the 
 Mont mine-yard with its various big mine buildings, huge 
 steel hoist and criss-crossing of trolley tracks, Dan could 
 see many other such red-painted fences enclosing mine- 
 yards, and up and down the side of the hill were many 
 buildings and hoists, those on the summit sharply sil- 
 houetted and some of the tall, black smokestacks in close- 
 belted rows like sections of a great pipe-organ. There 
 were many plumes of steam, the hum of great, intricate 
 hoisting engines, the rumble of ore skips and cages, the 
 puffing of locomotives, the thousand and one other notes 
 of work all blending into a diapason that was the very 
 Voice of this world of Labor of which Dan Bradshaw
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 21 
 
 now had become a part. Under this vigorous industry 
 lay enormous bodies of gray-greenish rock that held the 
 copper and zinc and much of the gold and silver, too, and 
 to delve in the heart of a mighty treasure-trove was to 
 be Dan's work. The romance of it all was uppermost in 
 him, and he was thrilled. 
 
 "A man can make good here if he's got it in him", 
 he said to himself. "I'll come up out of the hurly-burly !" 
 
 At the foot of the stairs, Dan took his place in the 
 line of men passing through the small office in the corner 
 of the building where a clerk, back of a short counter, 
 was checking off the men, and where another clerk was 
 handing out candles, two to a man. Dan, following the 
 example of the others, placed his candles in his jumper 
 pocket. Some of the men, especially the foremen, shift- 
 bosses, samplers and skinners, went into an adjoining 
 room to charge carbide lamps, the samplers and skinners 
 then fastening theirs to the front of their caps. 
 
 On his way to the turn-sheet, a steel-plated floor that 
 leveled the approach to the shaft, Dan glanced through a 
 window of the engine house where the massive hoisting 
 engines were working with clocklike precision and cer- 
 tainty. Their nickeled parts glistened, their brass was 
 burnished, and scarcely a scratch marred the deep black 
 of their frames. They seemed possessed of a human con- 
 sciousness as if realizing the dependency placed on them 
 by hundreds of men. And magnificently oblivious of the 
 crowd in front of the engine house and under the great 
 steel hoist, and able to distinguish amid the bedlam of 
 noises the merest squeak of the wonderful mechanisms 
 of which they had charge, stood the engineers high on 
 their platforms above their engines, watching dials and 
 listening for signal bells, ready to grasp any of the semi- 
 circle of bright brass controllers or handles of long, black
 
 22 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 brake levers before them. Emulating the serious concen- 
 tration of their chiefs, the oilers and engine wipers went 
 about their work with nonchalant intentness. 
 
 There was a reckless good nature manifested in the 
 crowd of miners and muckers waiting to be lowered 
 underground, a rather rapid process, for no ore was 
 hoisted when shifts were going down or coming up, so 
 that now the big ore skips were hanging on the gallows- 
 frame. 
 
 Dan felt a hand on his shoulder and, turning, he saw 
 Jackson. 
 
 "Who's your shift boss?" asked his new friend. 
 
 "Smith". 
 
 "Then you're on the eighteen hundred a good level. 
 I work there, too, so we'll go down together." 
 
 The cages had been shooting up and down with un- 
 ceasing regularity, the men destined for the upper levels 
 going down first. Then came the time for Dan to go 
 below. The station tender raised the iron bar extending 
 across the front of the shaft compartment before which 
 Dan stood, swung open the safety doors of the cage's 
 third and lowest deck, and following Jackson and several 
 others bound for the same level, Dan stepped on. In 
 turn, the middle and top decks were brought level with 
 the turn-sheet and loaded with human freight. There 
 came a staccato of bell taps, the sharp puffing of an 
 engine exhaust, and the cage plunged into the depths. 
 The velocity of its downward rush made Dan catch his 
 breath. Pitch darkness prevailed excepting when a mo- 
 mentary swish came in the rumbling of the cage 
 against the guides and a streak of light, shining through 
 the jointure of the double iron doors of a level, flashed 
 by. That occurred every hundred feet, so Jackson told 
 him, and Dan, clenching his teeth, mentally noted that
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 23 
 
 he never had progressed at such a speed. It seemed to 
 him that the cage must have dropped a great distance 
 when, to his startled amazement, the deck which he had 
 boarded appeared to be falling away from him, but 
 quickly he sensed the cage bottom and realized he actu- 
 ally was on it. Suddenly the cage seemed to be bobbing 
 up and down in ever-increasing leaps and falls, much as 
 a small boy might dangle a ball at the end of a long 
 elastic. Dan swallowed hard. He did not know if this 
 bobbing motion was customary and he did not like to 
 inquire about it. 
 
 "Feel that?" asked Jackson with a laugh. "You'll 
 soon get used to it. The cable's got to have elastic play 
 like that or it 'ud break maybe." 
 
 "If the oF string breaks zowee!", remarked a man 
 behind Dan. 
 
 A volley of friendly curses followed. 
 
 The cage settled down to a steady, but no less speedy, 
 descent and when Dan felt a pressing against his ear- 
 flrums he bethought himself of Jackson's advice. When 
 the cage began slowing it seemed to Dan as if his feet 
 had left the bottom of the cage and he was soaring up 
 the shaft, a sensation often felt not only by novices but 
 by experienced mining men. Dan's deck was stopped 
 with remarkable precision opposite two iron doors. 
 These were swung open by the station tender, who also 
 opened the safety doors of the deck, and Dan and the 
 others stepped off on the turn-sheet after which the other 
 two decks were brought down to discharge their cargoes. 
 The doors were banged shut, the station-tender jerked 
 the signal rope and the cage went hurtling up the shaft. 
 A train of ore-laden mine cars was being backed on the 
 turn-sheet by a squat, powerful electric engine. The con- 
 tents of cars were being dumped into the chute-pockets,
 
 24 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 the ore crashing down the chutes to where the ore skips 
 later could get it. Immediately opposite the iron doors, 
 giving access to this level, and across the turn-sheet, be- 
 gan the long, incandescent-dotted, car-tracked gallery 
 that was the main drift. Men who had been lowered 
 with Dan were passing into it on the way to their work. 
 
 The shift boss, Smith, standing near the main drift's 
 entrance, beckoned to Dan and two other men, an Italian 
 and a Finlander, and without a word turned and entered 
 it. Bradshaw and the other two followed. Far along 
 this drift, through cross-cuts and other drifts, they made 
 their way, occasionally stepping aside to let ore trains 
 pass, until they came to a ladder fastened to the timber- 
 ing beside an ore bin. Up this ladder for eight feet to a 
 small landing and then up another such ladder for a like 
 distance, Dan, the Italian and the Finn followed Smith 
 and finally arrived on the second floor of the stope where 
 they were to shovel ore into a chute that led to the bin, 
 as soon as possible after the rock was broken down from 
 the face where, even now, a machine man and his helper 
 were preparing to drill for the blasting to be done when 
 the shift was ended. Two carbide lamps and several 
 candle flames furnished a murky illumination. 
 
 Observing that the Italian and the Finn were putting 
 their lunch buckets in a place of safety at one side, Dan 
 did likewise ; for this was to be their dining-room during 
 the eating time. 
 
 The shift boss addressed them brusquely. 
 
 "Ye fellers muck here", he said. "See that ye keep 
 this floor clean an' the rock goin' into the bin. An' keep 
 under the timberin'." Then he left. 
 
 The three equipped themselves with shovels and went 
 to work.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 2$ 
 
 "Ef yuh fall in chute, yuh get hall of a fall", cautioned 
 the Finn. 
 
 And so it was that Dan Bradshaw began his first 
 shift as a mucker eighteen hundred feet beneath the sur- 
 face of a great Butte mine. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Eight hours after he had gone on shift, Bradshaw 
 was being rushed to the top in a three-deck cage with 
 some twenty-five of his fellow workers, but the uprush 
 was not nearly as disconcerting to him as had been the 
 lowering in the morning. There were new blisters on his 
 palms at the base of his fingers, and an unaccustomed 
 ache between his shoulder blades. 
 
 When the cage shot up into the sunlight, the air 
 seemed wonderfully and crisply invigorating. Half an 
 hour later, hundreds of miners, muckers, topmen and 
 others from the Mont were striding through the big 
 gateway, swinging their lunch buckets, joking and laugh- 
 ing. Some of them stopped just outside the gateway to 
 empty the remnants of their lunches into the big wooden 
 pails held up by various youngsters, who thus secured 
 provender for the cows at home. 
 
 Dan and Jackson walked down the graded road to- 
 gether and where a branch road joined it going to a 
 suburb at the city's edge, Jackson left him. When he 
 reached Carty's saloon, Bradshaw hesitated, and then 
 turned into the place. Other mine workers were there. 
 Carty, himself, was tending bar together with his two 
 bartenders. 
 
 Dan drew in long draughts from a thick, tall schooner 
 of beer. When he had finished it, Carty extended an in- 
 vitation. 
 
 "Have one on the house." 
 
 Bradshaw smiled. "Well, if you insist", he said.
 
 26 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Ever try a 'alf-and-'alf ?" asked Carty. 
 
 "Can't say that I have." 
 
 "Here, I'll fix you up one it's half porter and half 
 beer." 
 
 Dan sipped the mixture. "Goes good", he declared, 
 and drank it. "I'll try another." 
 
 Leaving Carty's, Bradshaw went down Working Lane 
 to Mrs. Inez Harrity's place with more of a swagger. 
 His thoughts sent the blood bounding through his veins. 
 Was he not one of the men who labored underground in 
 one of Butte's greatest mines, which fact of itself be- 
 tokened much of physical brawn and courage? Was he 
 not one of the army of workers who made this city the 
 famed locality it was? And was this not the place in 
 which to assert himself and win that recognition which 
 would establish him as a leader among men? Was there 
 not much human material all about him waiting for him 
 to mould it as he might see fit? And then when leader- 
 ship and success came because of what he would do for 
 those whom he would lead, what other possibilities might 
 there not be ? Who would not look kindly on a man who 
 would dare and do and prove himself a chieftain among 
 men? 
 
 Bradshaw found Walton waiting for him in front of 
 the boarding house, and Dan was pleased, for he liked 
 this tall, serious-minded, quiet but determined man. He 
 admired Walton for his pluck, for the latter a trained 
 newspaperman, had come west for his health and, hav- 
 ing been unsuccessful in securing newspaper work in 
 Butte had followed the course of many another of his 
 kind and, asking no odds of anyone, had gone to work 
 in the mines. 
 
 "I waited to see you and tell you the good news", said
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 27 
 
 Walton cheerfully. "I've landed on at last. I'm going 
 to work for the biggest newspaper in Butte." 
 
 "Good luck to you, Old Man, good luck!" exclaimed 
 Dan seizing Walton's outstretched hand. 
 
 "Will you keep in touch with me?" asked Walton. 
 
 "Surest thing you know", declared Dan emphatically. 
 And then with a smile : "But I promise not to make any 
 touches."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 SHOES AND SOCIALISM 
 
 It became more or less a habit with Bradshaw to stop 
 at Carty's after coming off shift, provided he was on a 
 shift that did not end when Carty's was closed, for, like 
 the other saloons in Butte, that place was dark from mid- 
 night to eight o'clock the next morning. 
 
 Sometimes he would wander up to Carty's during his 
 waking, loafing hours. It was not at all his nature to find 
 surcease from workaday affairs in a saloon, or with the 
 typical saloon element, but Dan found that Carty's in a 
 measure partook of the nature of a man's social club for 
 Working Lane. There he could take a leading part in 
 the discussion of various topics that were considered 
 from different angles and often with much acumen. And 
 as Dan had the faculty of expressing himself well, he 
 frequently was the center of an interested circle in front 
 of the bar. True, there were times when, in a spirit of 
 good fellowship, he drank too many 'alf-and-'alves, not 
 that they seemed to hurt him physically for he worked 
 hard and was in trim condition, but they excited him and 
 then he would talk somewhat boisterously, a bit boast- 
 fully and a trifle belligerently. But he won a growing 
 prominence there that was not at all displeasing to his 
 man-nature and even where he worked in the mine, men 
 laboring nearby would seek him out at noon to listen to 
 his ideas while they ate. Some of the rougher clientele
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 29 
 
 at Carty's, and even the tougher element in the mine, 
 were willing to go so far as to forgive the correctness of 
 his manner of talk and other evidences of Dan's educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Working steadily, he was able to indulge his taste for 
 neat attire, and even that was forgiven him by his 
 rougher admirers. 
 
 Leaving a department store one day, he came face to 
 face for a brief instant with "The Girl of the Train", as 
 he had come to think of her. He was not sure that she 
 recognized him, but that day he did not go to Carty's 
 and his visits at the saloon for a while thereafter were 
 somewhat less frequent. It was apparent, however, that 
 he already had established a degree of prominence in 
 labor circles that brought him to more emphatic notice 
 in the developments of the ensuing months and did not 
 require support by reason of social sessions at Carty's. 
 
 There soon came a crisis in the miners' union, to 
 which Dan belonged, that was epochal in the affairs of 
 organized labor throughout the nation. Rent by internal 
 strife, the union split into two distinct organizations, of 
 which the newer one virtually killed the force and effect 
 of the parent body, and then committed suicide by fall- 
 ing under the sway of a radicalism of "Direct Action" 
 type. But socialism, radicalism and direct actionism 
 were not eliminated from the community. Drawing 
 from the Intellectual Socialists, the Radical Socialists 
 and the Direct Actionists, each of which factions had 
 regarded the other two with sneering animosity, there 
 came a fourth and nameless entity whose unrecorded 
 membership was represented at socialist meetings and 
 direct actionist gatherings. It trifled with the "intel- 
 lectual" considerations of idealistic socialism, and had a 
 hankering for direct actionist methods. Also it was very
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 peaceful, when there was nothing to be discordant 
 about, or rather when no opportunity for being so af- 
 forded itself. 
 
 It was with this fourth quantity, unknown as to 
 name, without formal organization or defined purpose, 
 but really more alive than might have been supposed, 
 that Dan became affiliated. He had rather good claim 
 to its leadership for he was asked to decide various ques- 
 tions of moment to its unrecorded membership and there 
 was enough of the physical man in him to enable the en- 
 forcement of his dictates by right of might and forceful- 
 ness. With adventure still strong in him, he found such 
 power appealing. 
 
 In those same months, Bradshaw advanced from 
 muckerdom to the position of machine-drill man in the 
 Mont. 
 
 Walton rapidly made his way to the Sunday editor- 
 ship, where other important editorial duties devolved 
 upon him. Bradshaw visited him both at his office and 
 at his rooms, for though pursuing ever more divergent 
 pathways, these two saw in each other attributes of char- 
 acter which they sincerely liked, and in their discussions 
 they were candid, expressive and honest. 
 
 In Bradshaw a dual temperament often manifested 
 itself with regard to the status of society that most at- 
 tracted him. The artistic, the refined and the true made 
 forceful appeal to his finer nature. Circumstances had 
 thrown him into circles that indeed tried his stamina 
 and wherein his power of assertive leadership, his cour- 
 age and his belief that he wanted to benefit those whom 
 he felt he had been called on to lead, dominated him. 
 Yet there was the natural prompting that he utilize his 
 ability, his education and his determination for a per- 
 sonal advancement that would enable the consummation
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 31 
 
 of dreams which he cherished. He sometimes took long 
 walks about the city trying to wrestle with and solve his 
 problems to his own complete satisfaction. 
 
 It was on one of these walks that an irritating nail 
 in his shoe caused him to enter a small, leather-odored 
 shop, over whose door were the words on a small, simply 
 painted sign : "Klemner the Cobbler". 
 
 Klemner, bowed with years of labor at his cobbler's 
 bench, looked up questioningly and when Dan explained 
 the nature of his visit, invited him to be seated. The 
 shoemaker laid aside the brogan into the sole of which he 
 had been driving hobnails, and took the offending shoe 
 that Bradshaw handed him, smoothing down its soft, pli- 
 able leather with toil-wrinkled fingers seamed with years 
 of waxing thread. 
 
 "Good shoe", he ventured. 
 
 Bradshaw looked up from the paper he had casually 
 picked up from the heap beside his chair. It was titled, 
 "The Socialist Age". 
 
 "Yes, pretty good", he agreed affably. "They cost 
 six dollars ought to be good." 
 
 The shoemaker tightened his lips. Six dollars the 
 price of three pairs of brogans! Without speaking, he 
 finished removing the nail and handed the shoe back to 
 Dan. 
 
 "I happened to see a letter in this paper by Clair- 
 mont", Dan remarked. "I didn't think Clairmont wrote 
 for this paper. Fact is, I didn't know he was a social- 
 ist." 
 
 "He writes for nearly every issue", Klemner said, re- 
 suming work on the brogan. He nodded at a stack of 
 papers on a shelf behind him where also lay a battered 
 copy of "Looking Backward" and a paper-bound "De-
 
 32 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 scent of Man". "He's got letters in all of them papers, 
 too." 
 
 "This one", said Bradshaw indicating the paper he 
 had been reading, "is well worded. Ever rea'd any of his 
 books?" 
 
 Klemner shook his head. He was a taciturn man, 
 past the meridian of life. His hair was thin and wispy, 
 and his eyes, behind their large, round glasses, were 
 thoughtful. 
 
 "You ought to", Bradshaw went on. "They're rated 
 highly." He stood up, thrusting one hand into his 
 socket. "How much do I owe you?" 
 
 Klemner drew the back of his hand across his mouth. 
 
 "Clairmont writes books for glory", he said, "but 
 them letters of his is different. He writes them as a 
 teacher. You don't owe me nothing." 
 
 "I appreciate your kindness", said the miner holding 
 cut his hand. "My name's Bradshaw Dan Bradshaw." 
 
 Klemner stood up and regarded Dan intently. "So 
 you're Dan Bradshaw", he said slowly, as if to himself. 
 Then he shook Dan's hand warmly. 
 
 Thus Bradshaw became acquainted with Klemner. 
 He came to know of Klemner's life in the modest three 
 rooms behind his shop. He came to know Klemner's tall, 
 buxomly handsome daughter, Millie. In a burst of con- 
 fidence the shoemaker once said to Dan, "My daughter 
 Millie ain't got much education 'cause I can't let her get 
 the polish I might if I had the means and", with a dry 
 little laugh, "she won't miss it any 'cause she can only 
 look forward to a workingman for a husband. It 
 wouldn't do for her to be too well educated. It might 
 ?mrt her chances if the men of her class got the notion 
 she was superior to them, and I want my girl to get at 
 least as good a workingman as she can."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 33 
 
 Bradshaw had different ideas on the subject. He 
 overlooked the fact that he was himself a young, vigor- 
 ous man, good to look upon and much more cultured in 
 those niceties which make appeal to the feminine dispo- 
 sition, than were the men whom Millie was accustomed 
 to meet. It was a pity, he thought, that such perfect, 
 beautiful womanhood should sink away to be lost among 
 those whom Klemner had styled her class. 
 
 In his masculine blindness Dan failed to note that 
 Millie was always "dressed up" when he came, that she 
 wore a brightly colored ribbon as a collar and that her 
 large, brown eyes that looked out in almost childish in- 
 nocence from back of her long, curving lashes, bright- 
 ened when she saw him. For all her womanly physique 
 she was girlish in demeanor, and Dan was not surprised 
 when Klemner told him that his daughter was but 
 eighteen. He brought her several books that he thought 
 might interest her, and he presented her with a gram- 
 mar. Occasionally he would share a modest meal with the 
 Klemners in their little dining room back of the shoe 
 shop, and after the shoemaker had expounded some of 
 his socialistic theories and urged Dan to make a deeper 
 study of socialism, he would take up his reading of "The 
 Socialist Age", leaving Bradshaw to talk to Millie. Al- 
 ways she would introduce the subject of grammar, so 
 that sitting side by side at the table, he would explain 
 certain matters in the book which she found a bit diffi- 
 cult. 
 
 At Klemner's, Dan met Cronel, and found in this 
 dreamy-eyed theorist another interesting study. Indeed 
 most of those whom he met at Klemner's were interest- 
 ing. They were hard-fisted toilers, children of stern con- 
 ditions, believing themselves honest in their convictions 
 and forever looking for the coming of a great, illumi-
 
 34 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 nating light, making a fetish of their word of words 
 Evolution. Dan discovered somewhat to his surprise 
 that these men were more cognizant of upper class con- 
 ditions than were the upper classes of theirs, while at the 
 same time they endeavored to adhere strictly to truth and 
 candor without malice. 
 
 One evening when Millie had endured all the gram- 
 mar that she could for the time, she pushed the book 
 away and led the conversation round to a musical comedy 
 that was to play in Butte the following two nights. Dan 
 invited her to go with him and she was quick to accept 
 choosing the second night of the performance, as she said 
 she had promised to go to the Paperhangers' Fifth An- 
 nual ball the next night. 
 
 "With whom?" asked Dan jokingly. 
 
 "Chris", she answered. "He's been asking me so 
 often to go somewhere with him and he's such an old 
 friend of the family, I don't like to hurt his feelings and 
 not go." 
 
 Chris, who had been her devoted admirer for the past 
 year, doubtless would have felt greatly aggrieved had be 
 known that Millie classified him as "a friend of the fam- 
 ily", when he fondly imagined he was her recognized 
 "steady". 
 
 "Can't you come to the dance too ?" Millie asked Dan. 
 
 "I hardly think so at least if I did look in at the hall 
 sometime during the evening I don't think I'd dance any- 
 way", he replied. 
 
 "Maybe you'd change your mind after you got there", 
 she remarked. 
 
 Bradshaw laughed good-naturedly. 
 * * * * * 
 
 The ball was nearing its close when Bradshaw looked 
 in, and Millie, who had been keeping an eye on the en-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 35 
 
 trance doors of the hall all the evening, to the mystifica- 
 tion of her escort, saw him immediately. She gave him 
 a welcoming smile when he approached her and moved 
 over on the long wall bench to give him a place beside 
 her. 
 
 "I've saved you some dances" she said but he smiled 
 and shook his head. 
 
 "Not dancing tonight", he replied, "but I'll enjoy sit- 
 ting out a dance with you if you'll let me." 
 
 Chris excused himself with a bluntness occasioned by 
 diffidence and more or less resentment. 
 
 "I have the next dance", Millie told Bradshaw, "but 
 we'll sit out the one after that." 
 
 Then one, Mike Vignon, whose perverse sobriquet in 
 the "Direct Action" circles of which he was the admit- 
 ted leader was "Red Mike" from the fact of his pro- 
 nounced swarthiness, came to claim her for the ensuing 
 dance and she tripped lightly away with him. 
 
 "So Bradshaw's too good to come to a dance like this, 
 but jus' drops in on it to see some certain party", Vignon 
 remarked brazenly to her as they followed the others in 
 their slightly free and easy, yet very graceful manner of 
 dancing. "He kind of hangs 'round your place a whole 
 lot, don't he?" 
 
 "It's none of your business what he does", Millie re- 
 plied with spirit, and her challenging eyes were not so 
 childishly innocent. 
 
 "Chris don't seem to like it much either", Vignon 
 persisted. "Chris is a joke. That guy waltzes like a 
 mule an' he's a mule in everything else too." 
 
 Had Vignon made any such remark about Chris be- 
 fore the advent of Bradshaw, Millie would have deeply 
 resented the slur. As it was, she looked at him scorn- 
 fully. Vignon came sometimes to Klemner's shop and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 when in his cups he openly avowed his liking for Klem- 
 ner's daughter. She had never shown the least liking 
 for him, but for her father's sake did not want to affront 
 him. 
 
 When the dance was finished he returned her to her 
 place with never a look at Bradshaw and left the hall to 
 visit the saloon two doors away. He found Chris there 
 and engaged him in conversation, buying him several 
 drinks during the course of their talk. 
 
 "I thought you would come and dance with me", Mil- 
 lie chided Bradshaw. 
 
 He protested that certain organization affairs had 
 kept him away. 
 
 "Oh I know, that old League that's been organized", 
 she said poutingly. "Dad says you are a kind of a leader 
 in it. Oh yes, you are he says so. He says he thinks 
 you are going to be great like Clairmont. He's always 
 talking about Clairmont. Do you know Clairmont?" 
 "No", said Bradshaw with a laugh. 
 "Neither do I", she went on. "He never comes to our 
 shop." 
 
 Bradshaw glanced at her in sharp surprise. As he 
 had become better acquainted with her he had realized 
 that nature had been more bountiful in gift of beauty to 
 Klemner's daughter than in perspicacity, but he had not 
 expected anything quite like this from her. "Oh no, 
 Clairmont lives in New York", he rejoined casually. 
 
 "I'll tell you something else", she went on. "I heard 
 Dad tell Mr. Cronel that if you would study socialism 
 more you'd be the leader of what he said was their cause. 
 And do you know what Mr. Cronel said ?" 
 Bradshaw smiled. "No, I can't imagine." 
 "He said" and she imitated Crenel's tone as best 
 she could " 'If Clairmont, why not Bradshaw? He too
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 37 
 
 has education, personal magnetism and enthusiasm and 
 he would be a great man for the Intellectuals if directed 
 along the right channel.' There! Wasn't it nice of me 
 to remember that just to tell you how much they think 
 of you?" 
 
 He was man enough to like her praise. It was rather 
 gratifying to appear so much a man among men even in 
 the eyes of the shoemaker's daughter for, after all, Millie 
 was beautiful, and compliments from a beautiful woman 
 are never unpleasant to man-nature. Bradshaw thought 
 he never had seen Millie Klemner more attractive than 
 now. Her hair, of the same warm tint as her eyes, was 
 ample enough to surround her well poised head with a 
 coronet of thick braids. And as he often had done be- 
 fore, Bradshaw wondered at her remarkably fine com- 
 plexion and at the perfect blending of the blush in her 
 cheeks with the milk whiteness of her neck which, full- 
 throated and firmly modeled, he could see at the 'V 
 opening at the top of her bodice and sweeping down to 
 the swelling curve of her bosom. 
 
 The charm of her physical attraction swept over and 
 enveloped him for a moment. 
 
 "Don't forget the show tomorrow night", he said 
 emphatically, bending a trifle nearer her. 
 
 She flashed him a look from the corner of her eyes 
 and her smile disclosed the even whiteness of her teeth.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 CRESCENDOES 
 
 Arrayed in her finest, Millie indeed presented a most 
 attractive picture when Bradshaw called for her the fol- 
 lowing evening. A deeper blush suffused her cheeks as 
 she saw him. And Bradshaw was delighted at the 
 thought of escorting so good-looking a girl. 
 
 The production proved entertaining, and their places 
 in the second balcony afforded them a view of the stage 
 that Millie enthusiastically declared to be "awful grand". 
 During the first act, Millie chewed gum, but otherwise 
 Dan enjoyed the show immensely. Millie's conversation 
 during the single intermission was inane and only by 
 glancing at her frequently could he maintain the theory 
 that she surely was too splendid a specimen of woman- 
 hood to be permitted to slip away into dull obscurity for 
 the want of the right sort of stimulus. He was pleased 
 to find that the second and concluding act began with the 
 absence of Millie's gum-chewing accompaniment and he 
 felt more kindly toward her. He resolved that if given 
 the proper opportunity he would try to make her realize 
 that it would be far more compatible with the appear- 
 ance of such a young woman as Miss Millie Klemner for 
 her to eschew gum. 
 
 As they came down one of the broad inclines leading 
 to the foyer, Dan, glancing casually over the stream of 
 laughing, chatting people down below him, paused
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 39 
 
 sharply for a moment, the blood surging through him. 
 He was looking at "The Girl of the Train" in the midst 
 of a gay theater party. 
 
 He was silent as he and Millie left the theater. It 
 was as if Millie abruptly recalled him from some abstrac- 
 tion when she indicated the other girl stepping into a 
 big, roomy limousine and exclaimed, "My! ain't that girl 
 got on the loveliest opry cloak !" 
 
 And Dan wondered why Millie's pointing and words 
 had so annoyed him. But he inwardly thanked Millie 
 when she declined to accompany him to a restaurant, 
 saying that 'she had a bit of lunch at home for him and 
 her father'. 
 
 Arrived at the shop, they found Cronel there and, to 
 their surprise, Vignon, who left at once. The Direct 
 Actionist knew that Chris was drinking at Carty's and 
 a malicious scheme had presented itself to Vignon. 
 
 "Come in and help me set the table", Millie said to 
 Dan, while Klemner and Cronel sat smoking and talk- 
 ing in the shop. 
 
 After Bradshaw had helped her spread the cloth, she 
 laughingly urged him to sit down while she brought in 
 the lunch from the kitchen. Dan took a chair at the table 
 and busied himself with a newspaper he had picked up. 
 As the girl leaned over to place a plate on the table, her 
 hair brushed his cheek and as she straightened up her 
 hand rested lightly on his for a moment. He tingled at 
 the contact and turned towards her forgetting for an in- 
 stant everything but her physical lure. With a laugh, 
 the girl went into the kitchen and when she reappeared, 
 she found Bradshaw again closely scanning the news- 
 paper. She stopped behind him and ran her fingers 
 through his hair. In the momentary feeling of revulsion
 
 40 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 that was his Dan also realized that again Millie was 
 briskly chewing gum. 
 
 He arose and she confusedly placed the plate she was 
 holding on the table. 
 
 At that moment the shop's front door was flung open 
 and Chris, wild-eyed and menacing, staggered in. Vig- 
 non had abandoned him at the door of the shop and had 
 stepped over to the window to peer in at the scene to be 
 enacted. This was to be a double denouement the dis- 
 grace of Chris in the eyes of Millie and a declaration of 
 war from Chris to Bradshaw. More it involved Brad- 
 shaw with a girl which would help to weaken Brad- 
 shaw's leadership, if not utterly ruin him. 
 
 Klemner and Cronel rose, and Klemner shut the front 
 door. 
 
 Chris stumbled to the dining-room door and for a 
 moment was seemingly perplexed as though he were not 
 sure as to the number of Bradshaws he saw. 
 
 "You, Bradshaw", he called out. "You come for 
 Meelie, but you skal no get her. I keel you, Bradshaw, 
 if you come for Meelie. An' me an* Vignon we kick you 
 out of the League." 
 
 Klemner's daughter turned white and stared at him. 
 Chris held out his arms towards her. 
 
 "Meelie, Meelie, I come for you", he cried out pite- 
 ously. He moved forward and fell prostrate, his head 
 striking the fender of the stove with a thud, before he 
 measured his length on the floor. 
 
 The girl uttered a sharp cry. 
 
 Bradshaw and Cronel hastily raised Chris and 
 propped him up on a chair. 
 
 "Get some water, Millie", ordered her father tersely, 
 and she turned at once to obey him,
 
 41 
 
 Presently, after Dan had applied a cold compress to 
 Chris' head, that badly dazed man began to regain pos- 
 session of his senses. He sank back weakly. Millie 
 placed another cold bandage over the swelling on his 
 forehead, and he smiled up at her. When Dan came in 
 line of his vision, Chris also looked benignly at him and 
 it was evident that he no longer harbored any ill-will 
 against anyone. His chin dropped forward and a long 
 drawn snore came from him. Chris slumbered. 
 
 Bradshaw glanced at the girl, gathering up the wet 
 cloths. She picked up the basin of water and went into 
 the other room. He felt very sorry for her. It had been 
 a most unpleasant ordeal. 
 
 "Good night, Klemner", said Bradshaw quietly, and 
 took similar leave of Cronel. 
 
 All at once he seemed very apart from them. In- 
 stinctively they had recognized a superiority in this man 
 who, in this moment, had not been able to conceal his 
 class. 
 
 Outside, Bradshaw drew a long breath of the sweet, 
 night air. He was heart and soul in need of affiliation 
 with what the most cultured part of his nature de- 
 manded. So, with head erect, he went towards the more 
 brilliantly lighted avenues determined to see and talk to 
 Walton, who, as he knew, was in his rooms convalescing 
 after a severe cold. 
 
 Vignon, who had witnessed the whole affair from 
 without the window, walked sullenly, with muttered 
 curses, back to Carty's. 
 
 Bradshaw found the newspaperman comfortable in 
 dressing robe, enjoying the warmth of his grate-fire, for 
 it was late in the Fall.
 
 42 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "I'm glad you've come", said Walton smiling, as his 
 friend took possession of a favorite big chair before the 
 fire and lighted his pipe. 
 
 "I will confess that you and your cheerful grate have 
 a powerful attraction for me", declared the miner. "Do 
 you mind my turning out the light?" 
 
 Walton searched around on the chair beside him for 
 his pipe. 
 
 "Turn her out", he agreed heartily. There was a per- 
 fect mutual understanding between these two men and 
 the boyish breeziness that Bradshaw displayed at times 
 delighted the newspaperman. 
 
 "It might seem curious", Bradshaw began with a 
 little laugh as he settled back again in his chair, after 
 pushing the "off" button of the light switch, "but being 
 able to sit here and talk to you John, makes a grate-fire 
 doubly attractive in a compensating way for for disap- 
 pointments. It's a luxury there is no way of enjoying at 
 the hostelry of Mrs. Inez Harrity. For the life of me I 
 can't figure out the analogy, but just the same, being here 
 right now like this has the effect on me that certain kinds 
 of music have. Now you take good, light, cheerful comic 
 opera stuff just enough to remind you of the dazzle and 
 the dancing and all that why it makes you glad to be 
 alive, just plain, everyday Mr. Nobody, but glad you're 
 living and glad you are liking it. Grasp the idea?" 
 
 "Perfectly". Walton puffed slowly at his pipe. 
 
 Bradshaw watched the lazy curls of smoke from both 
 pipes blending near the ceiling. "And for the good of 
 the soul", he went on, "give me Irish music, for plaintive 
 or gay it has a soul and a character of its own and it gets 
 right into the heart of you. Then there's another kind, 
 like Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, the one that is heavy, 
 ponderous, rippling up and down, always giving promise
 
 43 
 
 of something to come, some part that is going to be a 
 surprise, something more ponderous than the rest and 
 many times more charming, and then it calms down to a 
 tiny trickle of a trill and breaks out grandly, swelling 
 into full crescendo." 
 
 "Crescendo's good," Walton murmured. "Seems to 
 me, Dan, my Lad, that is just about what you are hitting 
 for. The city editor who has a very efficient under- 
 ground news system, tells me you are the inspiring mel- 
 ody in certain circles, my dear young socialistic-anar- 
 chistic scholar. Seriously though, Dan, a man who can 
 falk as you can has no business mucking in a mine." 
 
 "Mirthful kicker, I am a machine-drill man and not 
 a mucker, and furthermore I am right where I ought to 
 be, close to my people. Oh yes, don't scoff. They are my 
 people for I have made them so. I want to help them. I 
 want to get them thinking and reasoning and trying to 
 better their condition properly and logically. I can't in- 
 terest them unless I show that I am one of them or they 
 might become suspicious. I've got to make myself more 
 or less conspicuous." 
 
 Walton laughed shortly. 
 
 "The impetuosity and sublime egotism of enthusi- 
 astic youth that's what's ailing you most, Dan. Your 
 people, as you call them, are with you now for they like 
 novelties and you are still a novelty to them. I honor 
 and like a great many of them. But you look only at the 
 surface. You do not understand crowd psychology. 
 Anyway, what is your ultimate purpose for them what 
 is the grand idea?" 
 
 "Proper evolution along proper lines that's about as 
 close a definition as I can give off-hand", replied Brad- 
 shaw. "I can't go into detail, because there are certain 
 conditions involved that you haven't studied John, if
 
 44 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 you really knew the meaning of 'bourgeois' and 'prole- 
 tariat' you might better understand the matter." 
 
 "Bourgeois the middle-class you mean. Why Dan " 
 
 "Excuse me, John", Bradshaw interrupted, "that 
 doesn't mean the middle class. When the heads of the 
 French nobility fell the middle class came into power. 
 There are only two classes existing today the bourgeois 
 and the proletariat that is to say the ruling class 
 and" 
 
 Walton gestured with his pipe. "And what Cronel 
 calls the 'wage-slaves'. Oh yes I've heard all that stuff 
 too. No Dan, where you fellows with the glib socialist 
 and direct actionist phrases get in your work in attract- 
 ing a following is by the expressed or intimated promise 
 of a system of the great divide-up of all earthly posses- 
 sions. Such a theory is against human nature. A plan 
 of that kind would kill ambition ; men would even forget 
 to invent. You see, at intervals they would have to divide 
 up again and so on until the really energetic and capable 
 ones would quit in sheer disgust. Finally it would mean 
 stagnation or the most fearful civil war that the world 
 has ever seen." 
 
 "I don't advocate the divide-up plan", Bradshaw per- 
 sisted. "Ambition can't be killed and men are sure to 
 progress despite even strenuous opposition. I want tal- 
 ent and brain to receive their proper consideration and 
 compensation too." 
 
 "And so they should and do", declared the newspaper- 
 man. "But if the Cronel pipe-dream suddenly could be 
 put into effect, how long do you imagine those of less 
 brain power than others would be willing to have higher 
 compensation given to those of even proved greater abil- 
 ity? Why man human nature makes us perfectly will- 
 ing, I should say eager, to concede our own greatness."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 45 
 
 Bradshaw was just as vehement. "Human nature! 
 it is only a matter of education and yet a most con- 
 venient thing on which to lay our sins and some of the 
 troublesome habits we haven't the moral courage to 
 change." 
 
 Walton laughed. "Dan, my boy, there's a keenness 
 of a kind in you. No wonder you are a leader in that 
 new League of yours." 
 
 Bradshaw bowed with mock gratification. 
 
 The newspaperman turned his head the better to con- 
 template the miner. "And now be honest and admit this 
 to me, Dan is it not true that many of those whom you 
 have met assembled under the banners of socialism, rad- 
 icalism, direct actionism, the League and what-not of 
 that character, are not students of political economy or 
 any other kind of students, nor sociologists nor altruists, 
 but just a disgruntled, envious and often trouble-seeking 
 element ready to hurl their own leaders to perdition if 
 that would mean personally benefitting themselves?" He 
 paused a moment and continued more earnestly. "Tell 
 me, lad, would they not do that to you despite your 
 avowed purpose to try to help them, lead them on to 
 better things, if they thought it to their individual inter- 
 ests to do so ? Have they not those very faults which they 
 are so ready to ascribe to others who do not think as 
 they do?" 
 
 "W-ell", rejoined Bradshaw slowly, "I can't exactly 
 say 'yes' to your complex question. Strictly speaking, 
 there might be a proportion of those who appear dis- 
 gruntled, but I believe even they are steadfast. I think 
 they can and will be led on to seeing the light. Also, I 
 think Cronel is sincere." 
 
 "Granted that he is", assented Walton, "but mighty 
 impractical. I only hope that neither you nor he, Dan,
 
 46 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 ever will have to put some of your disciples to the real 
 test." 
 
 A thrice-repeated gentle knocking on the door caused 
 Walton to arise and switch on the lights. In response to 
 his invitation the door opened admitting a head covered 
 with thin, red hair, a hawklike nose over-hanging a very 
 wide mouth, now distorted into a caricature of a smile, 
 florid blue-veined jowls in loose folds on either side of a 
 lantern- jawed face, remarkably deep-set eyes, all poised 
 on a long neck with a prominent Adam's apple. 
 
 "I intrude, kind Sirs?" came a soft-spoken, question- 
 ing voice. 
 
 "It's Crunch", remarked Walton in a tone of patient 
 resignation. He resumed his place at the fire, moving 
 his chair so that he could face his latest visitor. "Enter, 
 Crunch." Then ; " 'You come most carefully upon your 
 hour.' ' 
 
 Crunch stepped glidingly forward, closing the door 
 behind him. His actions had a cat-like quickness. He 
 was tall with sloping shoulders. His soft, tieless shirt 
 went incongruously with his out-of-date Prince Albert 
 suit of an oddly blended gray and brown. He nervously 
 fingered his battered felt hat, rolling and unrolling the 
 brim. His feet were small, unusually so for a man of 
 his height, and even the coarse, broken shoes he wore 
 did not conceal the fact that his were high, well-modeled 
 insteps. 
 
 When Walton, remembering Crunch's Shakespearean 
 hobby, had addressed him accordingly, the latter had 
 beamed with pleasure. To talk Shakespeare, to make 
 use of his phrases, discuss his heroes and analyze his 
 heroines, to probe his plots, formed Crunch's chief de- 
 light. He would leave any other engagement, even an 
 invitation to have a drink, to gloat over some choice
 
 47 
 
 Shakespearean bit, some philosophical expression taken 
 from the works of the only pen-master he cared to know. 
 Librarians in the city's public library came to have a 
 mild hatred for him because of his persistent inquiries 
 for books on Shakespearean research. Once a managing 
 editor had asked him, in the days when Crunch was a 
 steady, high-class copy-reader, what interpretation he 
 placed on a certain character in a Shakespearean com- 
 edy seldom portrayed, and Crunch never forgot that. He 
 raised his hat whenever that editor's name was men- 
 tioned. 
 
 "Gentlemen", Crunch began in his soft-pitched voice, 
 " 'The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It drop- 
 peth' " 
 
 Walton interrupted him banteringly. 
 
 "Oh drop it Crunch. How much do you want to bor- 
 row tonight?" 
 
 Crunch's caricature of a smile widened to a pro- 
 nounced grin. 
 
 "A mere bagatelle, a nothing, a trifle to tide me over 
 till my ship comes in." 
 
 " 'Words, words, words.' You mean until you can 
 hike out for a drink", said Walton. 
 
 Crunch drew himself up. 
 
 " That you have wrong'd me doth appear in this, ' " 
 he began with whatever sternness he could command. 
 " 'You have condemn'd and noted' " 
 
 "That's all right, Crunch", Bradshaw interposed 
 soothingly, and then added with assumed mournfulness, 
 "I fear that you are suffering from an itching palm." 
 
 Crunch waved an arm dramatically. 
 
 " 'I an itching palm ! 
 
 You know that you are Brutus that speak this, 
 Or by the gods, this speech were else your last.' "
 
 48 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Shut up, you lean and hungry Cassius", Walton re- 
 marked unconcernedly. "Don't get excited. Sit down 
 and tell us what brings you here?" 
 
 Crunch seated himself gingerly on the edge of a 
 chair. He looked directly at Walton from whom he 
 hoped to secure the object of his visit. 
 
 "Sir", he said," 'I could a tale unfold/ " 
 
 But Walton broke in abruptly on Crunch's words. 
 
 "Didn't you go to Direct Actionist headquarters the 
 other night and get thrown out? You've got to cut that 
 kind of thing from your repertoire, Crunch." 
 
 The latter sprang to his feet, declaiming; 
 
 " Tity me not ; but lend thy serious hearing To 
 what I shall unfold.' 'Marry, Sir, here's my drift;' 
 
 That unregenerate hound Vignon did mouth much. 
 Aye, I know the gentleman. I once did ask him for a 
 loan, a bagatelle, a mere trifle, nothing to speak of, but he 
 did refuse me sourly. And yet he is ever ready to smile 
 and shake my hand. Ah, 'That one may smile, and 
 smile, and be a villain;'. 
 
 "I knew him when 'But 'tis common proof, That 
 lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the 
 climber-upward turns his face ;' And verily he has come 
 to 'scorning the base degrees by which he did ascend:' 
 What I desired from him was unworthy a gentleman's 
 refusal. But to continue. This same vile one preaches 
 of Direct Action and says there are injustices. And yet, 
 ' 'tis true ; 'tis true 'tis pity ; And pity 'tis 'tis true :' 
 Great Caesar" 
 
 "Great-grandmother", Walton put in. "What did you 
 say that made them throw you out?" 
 
 Crunch thrust his face forward.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 49 
 
 "I spoke those truths which they are not yet prepared 
 to receive. I said it was to that system they must look, 
 Sirs, which will guarantee the common ownership" 
 
 "Yes, we know all that," Walton interrupted. 
 
 Crunch paused a moment to gaze at him abstractedly, 
 and resumed. 
 
 "Man must be the master of his own form of social 
 organization, consequently become lord over nature and 
 his own master; become in the word's deepest meaning, 
 emancipated. Then", he finished more quietly, "they re- 
 quested me to desist, and when I persisted they had a 
 committee throw me out." 
 
 "You see", said Walton to Bradshaw, "how they get 
 all that stuff from Cronel and how glibly they learn it 
 too?" 
 
 "You wrong me", Crunch protested. "No unkind 
 dictate of Nature has come as a sudden calamity to de- 
 prive me of the power to reason." 
 
 "No, it wasn't done suddenly, I'll admit", said Wal- 
 ton, but Crunch ignored the remark and broke into a 
 fierce tirade. 
 
 "Yet when reasoning fails to achieve result there are 
 other ways. We have rights and we demand them. May- 
 hap Vignon is right. If need be 'twere better to eat a 
 meal in the county jail or in military camp than per- 
 chance to have to sneak around for a handout at a free- 
 lunch institution." 
 
 "Oh, infernal rot!", ejaculated Walton, refilling his 
 pipe. 
 
 "That's sure enough Vignon's talk", added Bradshaw. 
 
 "Indeed Vignon is a vile disturber," Crunch hastily 
 declared, perceiving he perhaps had blundered too far.
 
 50 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "How much is the loan tonight, Crunch? Name the 
 mere bagatelle, the nothing, the whatever it is", and 
 Walton reached a hand into his pocket. 
 
 "Ah kind Sir, you are no tight purse", answered the 
 smiling Crunch. "I do need something of that which I 
 sometimes think is ' mightiest in the mightiest.' ' 
 
 Deftly he caught the coin which Walton tossed to him 
 and bowed. " "Most humbly do I take my leave, my 
 lord.' " 
 
 "That enough?" asked Walton. 
 Crunch grinned. 
 
 " ' 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide 
 
 As a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve:'." 
 
 Then as Crunch bowed again and turned to go, Brad- 
 shaw called to him and handed him a quarter. Crunch 
 looked at the coin in his hand and then intently at Brad- 
 shaw. 
 
 " Twas a largesse quite unexpected," he said with 
 quiet emphasis. "I value it and the donor. I may return 
 the generosity many-fold some day". And then he went. 
 
 Walton switched out the lights again and resumed 
 his place. 
 
 "Some of those Direct Actionists", he said, "are 
 surely spreading the seed of their discontent." 
 
 Dan smoked on for a few moments in silence. Then 
 he took his pipestem from his mouth and blew a long 
 tobacco cloud. 
 
 "Can you see why a strong hand is needed, John? 
 Don't think I'm too egotistical, but they need, in fact, 
 they must have one who will teach them and lead them 
 right. And that one must be able to assume a leading 
 place if necessary so that he can help them the more. 
 Also it would be a very good idea for him to attain the 
 proper status to back up his leadership."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "That is to say, my Daniel in the lions' den, that you 
 propose, for instance, to be ready when they get ready, 
 if they do to send you to the legislature or even higher 
 and that you will arrange if you can, to have them con- 
 tinue following you as their teacher. But I am very 
 dubious as to the result of your optimism, my son. You 
 are apt to find that you can't hold your element any more 
 than the members of it can hold themselves together. 
 Crowd psychology is a very peculiar proposition. And 
 how fickle is the crowd !" 
 
 "You don't understand, John", said Bradshaw, smil- 
 ing to himself. "You're all fed up on the other side of the 
 question. I know my people. You see, I stay right there 
 with them to lead them right." 
 
 "And Vignon?" 
 
 "Pshaw they'll see through him!" 
 
 "They will ? Well, don't lose track of him while pro- 
 ceeding to demonstrate your ability to carry them and 
 yourself through to any certain point. You're dealing 
 with a very complex problem, a complex idealism and a 
 very complex lot. As Paddy Skiff would say, 'Ye kin be 
 kind to a man an' he'll luv ye, but ye kin be so kind to a 
 crowd that it'll suspect ye.' " 
 
 "Which reminds me that Paddy Skiff has good need 
 of his own philosophic consolations these days", stated 
 Dan. 
 
 "How so?" demanded Walton, interested. "Is he in 
 trouble ? I thought that peripatetic philosophy had come 
 to take the place of his wild-eyed notions of the years 
 when he was some goer, my boy, some rough and ready 
 direct actionist of his own." 
 
 Bradshaw laughed. 
 
 "Well, it's all according to how you look at it. He's 
 in love."
 
 52 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Walton sat up startled. 
 
 "Love?" he asked as though he had misunderstood. 
 
 "Fact", Bradshaw nodded. "Mrs. Inez Harrity." 
 
 Hurrying from Walton's rooms, Crunch betook him- 
 self to Carty's, and if he was dry when he started, he 
 was parched when he arrived. After the second drink 
 had gone burning down his throat, he turned to look 
 about him. Several customers were at tables drinking 
 or playing cards. One individual stood balanced in a 
 corner rolling vacant eyes and muttering protests to 
 himself. 
 
 At the rear of the room, a fierce-eyed man was stand- 
 ing beside a table beating on it from time to time with a 
 brawny fist as he addressed a surly group seated about 
 before him. 
 
 "Yeh, damn 'em, no more bunk I say no more bunk. 
 The day'll come when we'll show 'em what we are." He 
 glowered at his small audience and the veins stood out 
 plainly on his muscular neck. "Reason with 'em? To 
 hell with 'em. We'll give 'em this", and he motioned as 
 if swinging a heavy sledge hammer over his shoulder. 
 "We'll give 'em a dose of direc' action. Betcher life I'm 
 not afraid to talk an' I kin act too. They got to keep me 
 at work 'cause I go down into places none a you guys or 
 anybody like you would go." 
 
 Crunch paid his check and moved to a chair near the 
 speaker. 
 
 The man beside the table continued. "Listen to me, 
 you guys, there's a bird named Bradshaw is goin' to find 
 out the League ain't no milk-sop prop'sition. The time 
 is coming an' have 'nother drink." 
 
 Crunch recognized the fierce-eyed man as Vignon.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 DANGER SIGNS 
 
 Impelled by the chivalrous motive of making Millie 
 forget her embarrassment occasioned by the unpleasant 
 incident in which Chris had figured as the chief actor, 
 Dan, en route to the first special meeting of the League 
 the following night, dropped in at Klemner's. He was 
 received with taciturn friendliness by the shoemaker, 
 and when Millie heard Dan speaking to her father in the 
 shop, she hastily straightened her hair, tied a ribbon 
 around her neck and took the grammar from its place 
 behind the clock in the dining room. So when Bradshaw 
 looked in through the doorway he saw that she appar- 
 ently was deeply engaged in study. 
 
 With seeming artlessness, she looked up at him as if 
 taken by surprise and tried to appear as wan as so 
 buxom a girl possibly could. 
 
 "How's the studying coming on?" asked Dan casu- 
 ally as if nothing had happened. 
 
 "I done a lot of hard work on it today", she replied, 
 fingering the leaves of the book. "There's some things 
 in it I'd like to ask you about." 
 
 Bradshaw advanced into the room and picked up the 
 book. 
 
 "Special meeting of the League tonight ain't there?" 
 Klemner called from the shop where he was busy soak- 
 ing soles.
 
 54 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Dan turned his head. "Yes. I'm on my way there 
 now. You going?" 
 
 " Traps I'd ought to", returned the shoemaker, "but 
 I guess they can get along without me tonight. There's 
 a lot of soreness, I'm told, among some of the boys about 
 what happened at the Golden West mine." 
 
 Millie had arisen and was leaning back against the 
 table. "What happened at the Golden West?" she asked, 
 for Chris worked there. 
 
 "A couple of men were fired two of the sabotage 
 bunch I think", Dan told her. "Vignon and his crowd 
 want them reinstated. I think I'd better be on my way." 
 
 "Have you got to go to the meeting?" Millie whis- 
 pered softly. 
 
 Dan smiled. "I think so", he replied. 
 
 "But I wanted you to explain something in the book 
 tonight", she persisted, looking up at him. 
 
 That was the strongest appeal she could have made 
 to him, but he replied banteringly. "There may be some 
 excitement at the League. You wouldn't want me to 
 miss it, would you?" 
 
 Millie pouted. "I shouldn't think you'd care so much 
 for the old League. They didn't even make you presi- 
 dent of it, and Dad says you're the brains of the League." 
 
 "That was very kind of 'Dad' ", Dan laughed. And 
 then, because he did not care to go into a futile explana- 
 tion of how it was that Cronel, chief of the socialist 
 scholastic faction had been chosen president by way of 
 compromise between the Direct Action contingent which 
 Vignon headed, and the conservative element directed by 
 Bradshaw, he added, "Oh I couldn't be president because 
 I like to do a lot of talking, and the president is not per- 
 mitted to say much."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 55 
 
 But after he had gone, Millie pursed her lips and 
 frowned. "Old League !" she exclaimed, as she spitefully 
 stuck the grammar back of the clock. 
 
 Her father, who had entered the room, laid a hand 
 on her shoulder as she passed him. 
 
 "Millie girlie", he said, "listen to me", and he looked 
 into her eyes. "Don't get foolish notions." 
 
 She tossed her head. "I wish Chris would come and 
 take me to a movie", she declared emphatically. 
 
 The shoemaker shook his head and went back to soak- 
 ing soles. 
 
 The girl, alone in the room, stamped her foot impa- 
 tiently on the floor. "I know if I asked Chris not to go 
 to any old League meeting he wouldn't go", she said 
 querulously to herself. "If I didn't amount to enough 
 in it to be the president I wouldn't go to the old thing." 
 Then she laughed and began to hum under her breath. 
 "Paw, where's that there comic supplement I had?" she 
 called out to the shoemaker. 
 
 Bradshaw arrived before the meeting was called to 
 order and immediately he was surrounded by a group. 
 In the midst of his questionings, Cronel took his place 
 back of the pulpit-like desk on the low platform at the 
 head of the hall, peering forward through the smoke haze 
 as he convened the session. 
 
 "Comrades, the meeting will come to order. Please 
 come to order", he repeated several times, rapping on 
 the desk with his knuckles. 
 
 When a fair semblance of order had been obtained, 
 Cronel explained the purpose of the meeting. 
 
 "Comrades", he began in halting fashion, for he was 
 a fluent speaker only when preaching his socialist doc- 
 trine, "this meeting has been called for by twenty-five 
 members of the League, enough to ask for a special ses-
 
 56 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 sion, to er to take up the matter of er the sum- 
 mary discharge of two of our members from the Golden 
 West mine of the Norton properties and it is claimed 
 that their discharge was on the suspicion of er of 
 having practiced sabotage in the mine. They er I" 
 
 "Well what did they do?", called out a voice. 
 
 "As I was about to inform you, Comrades", Cronel 
 went on, "they are accused of having twisted off a 
 switch-lever and to have that way delayed ore trans- 
 portation on an entire level for three hours." 
 
 Several laughs came from the body of the hall. 
 
 Cronel rapped on his desk. 
 
 "Comrades, what is your pleasure? What is to" 
 
 "We're prop'ly organized", said a rough-looking 
 member rising, "but we ain't got no grievance commit- 
 tee. But I say le's find out 'bout this thing. Le's see if 
 these guys kin be kicked out on 'spicion that way.". 
 
 "Do you put that in the form of a motion?" asked 
 Cronel leaning forward over the desk the better to see the 
 speaker. 
 
 "Naw, I don't put it in the form of nawthin' ", re- 
 torted the other and this sally again brought laughter, 
 whereupon he sat down with a pleased expression on 
 his face. 
 
 Two other members stood up. 
 
 After a moment's hesitation Cronel decided that Com- 
 rade Malley should have the floor. 
 
 Malley began to speak but the other member disputed 
 possession of the floor and Cronel admonished the inter- 
 rupter. 
 
 "All right, Cronel, all right", acquiesced the one who 
 had been called to order. "I'm a divide-up guy, too, so 
 let him have th' floor" and he sat down but as his remark 
 was somewhat of a thrust at what was taken to be
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 57 
 
 Crenel's "divide-up" theory, that caused more laughter. 
 
 True there were those of the membership ready to 
 laugh at almost anything, but not so much by way of en- 
 joyment as in derision. 
 
 The man who retained possession of the floor then 
 spoke. He was a Bradshaw follower. 
 
 "Mr. President", he began, "I make a motion that 
 th' investigatin' of this matter be left in th' han's of a 
 committee of one, an' that he report at th' meetin' nex' 
 Monday night." 
 
 "Is there a second to the motion?" asked Cronel. 
 
 Several voices called out, "Secon' th' moshun." 
 
 A figure near the door arose and announced with 
 great dignity. 
 
 "I desire at this time, my brothers, to second the 
 proposed motion." 
 
 It was Crunch, and Cronel tapped on the desk to stop 
 the laughter that ensued. 
 
 "Please sit down", ordered the chairman. "You're 
 out of order." 
 
 Other cries were directed at Crunch. 
 
 "Sit down!" "Throw him out!" "Git th' axe!" 
 
 Crunch bowed and subsided. 
 
 The vote being called for, the motion prevailed by 
 reason of the affirmative shouts being louder. 
 
 Someone called for "Bradshaw." The call was re- 
 peated from all parts of the hall. 
 
 "Comrade Bradshaw is asked to speak", said Cronel, 
 a bit bewildered by the insistent demands. 
 
 Dan arose and held up a hand to quiet the demon- 
 stration of approval that followed* He indeed would 
 have been greatly pleased could Walton have been pres- 
 ent to witness this evidence of his popularity.
 
 58 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Fellow Workers", he began, and that was an aus- 
 picious start for the term he used in addressing them 
 indeed was a favorite form of salutation at such meet- 
 ings, "I am rather inclined to favor a grievance com- 
 mittee." 
 
 "Young fellah Bradshaw!" called out an enthusiastic 
 voice. 
 
 "In this case", Dan continued, "a motion having been 
 carried for an investigating committee of one, per- 
 haps " 
 
 "You're th' boy fer it", came an interrupting shout. 
 
 "What I was going to say", Dan went on heedless of 
 the interruption, "is that maybe in this case one investi- 
 gator would do, but as a general proposition, perhaps a 
 regularly established or maybe I should say a permanent 
 grievance committee would be found more satisfactory." 
 
 While he was still standing another member jumped 
 up and waved an arm to attract Cronel's attention. "I 
 make a moshun that Dan Bradshaw do th' investigatin' ", 
 he shouted, which was greeted with much applause and 
 was seconded with a volley. 
 
 "It has been moved and duly seconded", began Cronel, 
 but he was vehemently interrupted by a chorus of ayes. 
 
 "Comrade Bradshaw is duly elected to investigate the 
 case at issue", he announced. 
 
 "I thank you, Fellow Workers, for the trust you re- 
 pose in me", said Dan. "I'll look into the matter." His 
 glance swept the room and he saw Paddy Skiff and Jack- 
 son and others of his friends looking up at him. "I'll do 
 my best to do the square thing in this. Who are the men 
 involved, Mr. President?" 
 
 Neither Vignon nor any of his coterie had evidenced 
 a disposition to take part in the discussion nor even to 
 vote, but at this point "Red Mike" bellowed out : "Stan'
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 59 
 
 up youse guys an' show yerselves. Let 'em all see who's 
 bin made the victims this time." 
 
 The two men stood up, one of them with braggadocio 
 manner and the other somewhat sheepishly. Bradshaw 
 smiled when he recognized them as Wilkins and Snitch, 
 and he knew them to be creatures of Vignon. Also the 
 sight of Wilkins and Snitch always recalled to Dan the 
 time he had so emphatically rebuked them on the road 
 above Carty's, the day when first he had spoken to but 
 then, he remembered all details of the incident very 
 clearly. 
 
 After the meeting had been adjourned and the mem- 
 bership had broken up into groups, some to remain and 
 smoke while they talked and others to wend their way 
 to favorite resorts, Paddy Skiff joined Bradshaw. 
 
 "Dan, I'm anxious to talk with ye", he stated. "Come 
 with me to Carty's." 
 
 Seated at a secluded corner table in Carty's, Paddy 
 began cautiously over their 'alf and 'alves. "Wist Dan, 
 there's somethin' ye should know. I got it straight 
 'cause I overheard it an' no one knew I was gettin' it, 
 d'ye mind. There's a divil a lot of trouble brewin' in 
 that Direc' Action crowd." 
 
 "What now, Paddy?" asked Bradshaw interestedly. 
 
 "They're sore 'bout them two fellers bein' kicked out 
 of the Goldin Wist, as I have no doubts them two bums 
 should a bin. An* the talk I was after hearin' was 
 ugly." 
 
 Bradshaw frowned. "What would they do? How 
 far would they go?" 
 
 Paddy flapped a hand at him. "Ach, sure an' there's 
 them amongst them would stop at nothin'. Wist take 
 me tip, lad, for ye know my feelin's toward ye have a 
 care for yerself too. There's them amongst them has
 
 60 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 hard feelin's agin ye an' I'm after thinkin' sure enough 
 that Vignon is back of the whole business." 
 
 Bradshaw laughed shortly. "Don't get nervous, 
 Paddy. That gang can't scare me. I don't scare worth 
 a hang." 
 
 "Now, now, tut, tut", and Paddy tapped on the table. 
 "Don't ye get too brash, me lad. I've always said ye was 
 a hot-head 'an so ye are in some ways, but yer a cliver 
 hot-head an' ye well kin have sense in bein' careful." 
 
 "I appreciate your concern in me, Paddy, and your 
 warning", declared Bradshaw quickly. "And I try to 
 keep my eyes open too." 
 
 Paddy took hasty survey of the place and then beck- 
 oned to Dan with his head, leaning over closer to talk 
 to him. "Give me a answer to a question, lad. What's 
 the most importint stope, would ye say, in the Mont 
 right now?" 
 
 "Why, that might be rather hard to say", replied 
 Bradshaw slowly. "I really think the one I'm drilling in 
 is as important as any." 
 
 "Well now don't ye know fer a fact that the biggest 
 ore strike made in the Mont in some time is right in that 
 stope yer workin' in?" Paddy went on. 
 
 "Yes, I guess that's right". 
 
 "Ah ha! an' how many times has DeWitt Nortin bin 
 there to inspect it?" 
 
 "He hasn't seen it yet because we've been getting it 
 in shape for him." 
 
 "When will he see it?" 
 
 "Paddy, you're sure some cross-examiner", Dan 
 laughed. "Why, I think he'll drop in on us most any 
 time now." 
 
 Paddy spoke slowly and impressively. "Lad, when- 
 ever Nortin comes to inspect that stope, ye keep yer eyes
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 61 
 
 peeled. Keep 'em peeled d'ye mind me? Nortin don't 
 make no secret of inspectin' his properties. That man 
 goes any place any time. He don't know fear." 
 
 That DeWitt Norton, chief owner of the Mont and 
 other great mining properties in the district, was a fear- 
 less man was a fact well known among the miners. Nor- 
 ton had the reputation of never sending a man into any 
 part of a mine in which he was interested that he would 
 not go into himself. He kept his properties up to the 
 topnotch in matters of pay, safety and justice. 
 
 Paddy looked keenly at Bradshaw. "I'm after havin' 
 a dom good hunch that there is those would like to see 
 a accident mind ye, I say accident get Nortin an' at 
 the same time get ye. It's jus* 'cause they're divils at 
 heart an' hell raisers. There's some of 'em mighty jeal- 
 ous of ye." 
 
 Dan put a hand on Paddy's muscular fist. "Out with 
 it, Paddy. What do you know about this and what do 
 you mean? Give me the entire proposition. No riddles 
 now." 
 
 "Maybe there's nothin' to get hot-headed about, lad, 
 but it's jus' a word of warnin' an' that's good even fer 
 the wise. I knock aroun' some meself an' I pick up a 
 word here an' a word there an' I still kin put one an' one 
 together." He looked squarely into Dan's eyes. "Why 
 lad, dom ye, can't ye see I've the feelin' of a father fer 
 his son fer ye, an* if I got suspicions that may help save 
 ye I'm goin' to tell 'em to ye." 
 
 "And I appreciate that more than I can tell you, 
 Paddy", declared Bradshaw. "But even admitting that 
 some of them might try to frame up a way to get Nor- 
 ton how could they get me?" 
 
 "Lad, lad, use yer wits", protested Paddy. "If Nor- 
 tin ever was hurted near where ye are workin' you know
 
 62 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 what that might mean to ye. No doubt ye would be the 
 one most blamed. An' if they could do worse to him, bad 
 cess to their bloody hearts, they'd like to fix it so's ye 
 would git yours." 
 
 "And why?" 
 
 "Yer in somebody's way." 
 
 "I'll be on my guard all right, Paddy Skiff", said 
 Bradshaw, and there was a stronger set to his jaw. 
 
 "An' remember, lad, they'll not work their game 
 openly. Oh no, not them. You kin bet yer sweet life 
 that if anything happens to Nortin, 'twill look like a 
 accident so any time Nortin inspects the new stope yer 
 in, keep yer dom eyes open." 
 
 Vignon and some of his crowd entered. Dan and 
 Paddy settled back in their chairs. Dan called the floor 
 boy over and ordered an 'alf-and-'alf for Paddy and him- 
 self, whereupon the floor boy, swaggering to the bar com- 
 manded the bartender loudly: "Draw two black an' 
 brown !" 
 
 Later, when Bradshaw and Paddy were about to 
 leave Carty's place, Paddy put a hand on Dan's shoulder. 
 "A moment, lad come over here a minute till I show ye 
 somethin' an' ask yer advice", he said somewhat embar- 
 rassedly drawing Dan to the cigar case and taking a 
 sheet of paper from an inner pocket of his coat. "See if 
 ye think it reads all right", he said, handing the paper 
 to Dan. 
 
 "Why, it's a poem!" exclaimed Bradshaw, looking up 
 in surprise. 
 
 "Of course it's a pome", asserted Paddy with empha- 
 sis. "Did ye think now 'twas a snake? What I do be 
 wantin' to know is do it read all right?" 
 
 Dan regarded the paper again.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 63 
 
 "It has a very touching sentiment", he decreed finally, 
 "even if it does make 'love' rhyme with 'tough'. Are you 
 going to send it to her?" he questioned dryly. 
 
 Paddy took the paper and carefully restored it to his 
 inner pocket. 
 
 "I wisht I had the nerve", sighed the old ex-dyna- 
 miter.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE GOPHER HOLE 
 
 As Bradshaw had told Paddy Skiff, he indeed was not 
 subject to groundless fears, but he knew that Paddy was 
 not given to the repeating of idle rumors. Also he reas- 
 oned that Paddy's past experiences enabled that quon- 
 dam "goer", as Walton had referred to him, to judge 
 when there was mischief under way among those of the 
 ilk designated by Paddy as "divils" and "hell raisers". 
 So Bradshaw determined to make good his statement to 
 Paddy about keeping his eyes wide open for any contin- 
 gency of a serious character that might present itself. 
 He did not propose to stand idly by and permit injury to 
 come to DeWitt Norton nor any other man and he cer- 
 tainly had no intention of letting himself be disposed of 
 to suit the purposes of "Red Mike" Vignon. For Dan 
 felt morally certain that Vignon was back of whatever 
 danger might be threatening. 
 
 He pondered such thoughts next day when he was at 
 work in the mine, and he also took note of the fact that 
 when his shift ended, the stope in which he worked and 
 in which the big ore strike had been made was in fit 
 condition for inspection purposes. Therefore, he judged 
 that the next day likely enough would bring De Witt 
 Norton to that part of the workings. 
 
 Nor was he mistaken in his conjecture. 
 
 Dan was still in the Dry the next morning making
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 65 
 
 preparations to go underground when the shift boss, 
 Smith, approached him. 
 
 "Hang 'round th' station when ye go down", he said 
 to Bradshaw, "an* when I come down with Mr. Norton 
 an' his party, be ready to take us to the new stope an' 
 explain whatever is asked ye 'bout it." 
 
 Accordingly, when Dan reached the "1800" of which 
 the stope was a part, he did as he had been instructed 
 and remained at the station, seating himself on a pile 
 of timbers at one side away from the rush of ore car 
 traffic on the turn-sheet, to await the arrival of the Nor- 
 ton party. 
 
 Bradshaw never had been afforded opportunity to 
 speak to Norton. In fact, the only sight he ever had ob- 
 tained of him was when he saw the mine owner proceed- 
 ing along one of the drifts clad in typical "digging" 
 clothes with battered canvas hat pulled well down on his 
 head. Bradshaw would not have known Norton had he 
 met him on top, for men down in a mine look very dif- 
 ferent from the way they do on the surface. Like the 
 rest of the citizenry, Dan knew the general facts re- 
 garding DeWitt Norton. Dan knew that Norton was a 
 mining man of good theoretical education and much prac- 
 tical experience, and at the age of thirty-six was already 
 a power of increasing magnitude among the important 
 western mining interests; that he and his sister resided 
 in a handsome house on the western edge of the city, a 
 stately, roomy house, set in the midst of extensive 
 grounds ; that, generally, the Nortons spent their winters 
 traveling or in the East where Norton had other inter- 
 ests; and finally that Norton was a keen businessman, 
 fearless, generous in any good cause, personally modest 
 and exceedingly democratic.
 
 66 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Perty soft fer you, young feller", the good-natured 
 Jackson called to Dan as he deftly whirled a car around 
 at the end of the tracks and rushed it across the turn- 
 sheet. "What did you do, buy this mine this mornin' ?" 
 
 Then, as he pushed the empty car to one side, he came 
 over to Dan and stood before him, feet planted widely 
 apart. 
 
 "Say Dan", he said in lowered tone, "looks to me as 
 if that Vignon bunch is gittin' too damn strong." He 
 pushed his cap back and wiped the perspiration from his 
 forehead. "They'd like to git my goat too if they could. 
 Know why?" 
 
 "Why?" asked Bradshaw, his eyes narrowing. 
 
 " 'Cause I'm fer Dan Bradshaw, that's why. Keep 
 mum 'bout this, Dan, an' keep on the lookout." 
 
 Then Jackson went back to his work, as several other 
 men came to the station from the main drift. 
 
 A frown contracted Bradshaw's eyebrows. 
 
 "Seems as if all my friends want to warn me," he 
 muttered to himself. "I'm going to have to hand it to 
 somebody soon. Somebody's looking for trouble and 
 somebody's going to get it and get it good." 
 
 At that moment the sound of the swiftly descending 
 cage came to him, and as Dan arose there was a grind- 
 ing noise, whereupon the station-tender jumped forward 
 to open the big, double iron doors and then unbar the 
 safety-doors of the cage hanging in the shaft opposite 
 the level. Several figures in "digging" clothes stepped 
 off on the turn-sheet; DeWitt Norton among them. 
 
 Bradshaw went forward to meet the party and the 
 shift boss in a few words explained to him the proced- 
 ure desired. Then, with the shift boss and Dan leading 
 the way, Norton, the superintendent and the foreman of 
 the Mont, followed closely along the main drift and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 67 
 
 through cross-cuts and other drifts that formed the way 
 that would take them to where they could climb to the 
 stope which Norton was most desirous of inspecting. 
 
 Now and again men passed them, coming and going, 
 or they had to give way to ore trains hurrying back and 
 forth, so that there were others in that part of the mine 
 who knew of the inspecting party's progress. 
 
 Nor did Norton and those with him go directly to the 
 stope wherein the new ore strike had been made, but they 
 paused at various places along the route to examine 
 workings or to have new work considered. 
 
 In due time they came to the ladder that led up 
 through the manway to the first floor of the stope, the 
 objective of that morning's careful inspection. 
 
 Bradshaw, all along the walk and loiterings, had kept 
 a sharp lookout. From the very moment that he had 
 joined the Norton party, he had determined to leave 
 nothing undone that would enable him to keep watch on 
 every possibility that might be resultant in an accident. 
 
 His mining experience made him appreciate the fact 
 that there were many ways in which seeming accidents 
 could be brought about and with the chance of serious 
 results. 
 
 There was the chance of drill-steels being dropped 
 down manways ; of loose lagging being left so as to cause 
 a fall ; of a live-wire sagging so as to electrocute the un- 
 wary one ; runaway ore cars to be guarded against. 
 
 The mere fact of reaching a stope by no means meant 
 safety. In climbing up through manways to stope floors 
 due care was necessary, as Bradshaw well knew. 
 
 A rock and timber-littered stope floor might trip a 
 man into an open manway or chute to his death. There 
 were dangers from improper timbering and from blasted 
 ore faces and roofs not properly barred down Indeed,
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 from many other conditions that lack of care or disre- 
 gard for safety or, so the thought flashed through 
 Bradshaw's mind, deliberate intent, might cause. 
 
 And thinking of these possible contingencies, Brad- 
 shaw not only flashed the light of his carbide lamp along 
 the floor of whatever drift or cross-cut they traversed, 
 but from side to side and even along the top. 
 
 When they came to the ladder up which they were to 
 go to the stope floor where he had last been drilling, 
 Bradshaw went up first, with Smith following. Then 
 came Norton, and after him the other two officials. 
 
 Suddenly Bradshaw stopped short so short that his 
 legs acted as a buffer for Smith's head. With nerves 
 keenly alert, Dan had been thoroughly alive to every de- 
 tail as he started up the ladder and when he stopped so 
 abruptly it was because of an unmistakable warning he 
 had received. 
 
 "Go back", he called down, and there was that in his 
 voice that made the others obey without question. Men 
 who know what work underground means act promptly 
 in emergencies, if they would save themselves from 
 danger. Otherwise they may pay a costly penalty. 
 
 Reaching the bottom of the ladder that footed in the 
 drift, Bradshaw urged the others to hasten along for 
 some distance. He led them into a cross-cut and there 
 he paused. And in that moment they heard the rumble 
 of an explosion. 
 
 "Was that up in the stope ?" asked Norton sharply. 
 
 "It was", answered Bradshaw. "Somebody touched 
 off a 'gopher-hole' ". By that he meant that a drill hole 
 shorter than those usually bored, had been loaded with 
 its dynamite charge, fuse inserted, primed and fired. 
 
 They waited there a few minutes longer.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 69 
 
 "Watson", said Norton to his superintendent crisply, 
 "I think you and Smith had better stay right here and 
 wait for any more evidences of blasting up there, if 
 there are any. The rest of us will go on and take a look 
 at a few other things. Keep an eye on that stope man- 
 way, too. And this 'gopher-hole' business is to be kept 
 under our hats." 
 
 In the half hour or so that followed, Dan noticed 
 that the affair of the stope had in no wise disconcerted 
 DeWitt Norton. As they proceeded from place to place 
 along the level, Norton spoke of various affairs pertinent 
 to what they were viewing, but never once of the 'gopher- 
 hole' explosion. Dan formed a real admiration for the 
 man. 
 
 "Nothing more doing", the superintendent informed 
 Norton when he and his companions returned to where 
 they had left Watson and Smith. "I think the smoke has 
 cleared away. Want to go back up there?" 
 
 "Of course", replied Norton promptly. 
 
 And back they went. 
 
 "It didn't tear down much", remarked Norton as he 
 went forward to examine the face of the stope, first tak- 
 ing good care to see that no loosened rock was depending 
 from the roof beyond the timbering. "It couldn't have 
 been a heavy charge." 
 
 Then he went on with his inspecting, from time to 
 time asking Bradshaw as to the drilling conditions and 
 other matters pertaining to the stope. 
 
 At the station, after Watson had signaled for the 
 cage, Norton turned to Dan. 
 
 "Bradshaw", he said, and it was the first time Nor- 
 ton had spoken Dan's name, though the latter was well 
 aware that Norton had learned all about him, before 
 coming underground that morning. That was Norton's
 
 70 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 way. "I would like to see you at my office as close to four 
 o'clock this afternoon as possible. Smith", Norton 
 turned to the shift boss, "Bradshaw can report off work 
 for the day at noon." 
 
 ***** 
 
 When the twelve o'clock whistles were blowing, 
 Bradshaw came on top and went to the Dry to change 
 his attire. To the surprise of Mrs. Inez Harrity he took 
 his noon lunch at the boarding house, and Paddy Skiff, 
 who was on the "four to twelve" shift, also expressed 
 wonder at seeing Dan. 
 
 As soon as lunch was over Paddy called Bradshaw 
 aside. "Anything wrong, lad?" he asked anxiously. 
 
 "Not a thing, Paddy", Dan reassured him. "Jus1 
 have to attend to something down town this afternoon." 
 
 "Well whatever 'tis," went on Paddy, "I'm glad to 
 see ye, fer 'tis good news I hav' fer ye." He clutched 
 Dan by the arm and drew him even closer. "Wist! I 
 give the pome to the Missus an' ", he paused to regard 
 Dan with twinkling eyes, "she sure give me incourage- 
 ment. She studied it an' said, 'G'wan ye ol' fool' but 
 lad, lad, she was smilin' whin she said it." 
 ***** 
 
 On his way to the Monticana building where were 
 located the general and private offices of the mining 
 properties in which DeWitt Norton was concerned, Dan 
 meditated on the sudden turn of Fate that had brought 
 him to the emphatic notice of Norton, so powerful a fig- 
 ure in the mining world; a man of strong personality 
 and ideas. If such a man and the men whom Bradshaw 
 accounted his own followers could be brought in ever 
 closer touch, what might not come of it? Would not 
 such a consummation hasten an evolution of wonderful 
 good in itself and of immeasurable benefit as a precept
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 71 
 
 and precedent? And for what part he might play in 
 such an event, Bradshaw knew he might himself attain 
 to a place enabling him the more to put into practice 
 those plans and theories which he conscientiously held 
 to be entirely altruistic in their purpose. Thus ran his 
 thoughts and they were not unpleasant on the con- 
 trary, they thrilled him to the very core. 
 
 A block away from the Monticana building Dan en- 
 countered Walton. 
 
 "By the Great Horn Spoon!", exclaimed the news- 
 paperman. "As 'I live and breathe, my young leader of 
 men, my" 
 
 "All of that and more", said Dan in a similar tone of 
 joking friendliness. "I had planned on seeing you any- 
 how this evening." 
 
 "And I was intending to send word to the far-famed 
 hostelry of Mrs. Inez Harrity asking you to come", Wal- 
 ton informed him. "I wanted to see you, Dan, because 
 I'm going away for awhile and I thought you might be 
 willing to inform me of California localities. Inciden- 
 tally, how comes it you're off shift so early?" 
 
 "One thing at a time, friend", said Bradshaw. "First 
 of all how comes it you're going away? and secondly, 
 I'm on my way to the Monticana building. Mr. DeWitt 
 Norton and I are to have a consultation/' 
 
 "Indeed?" Walton elevated his eyebrows. Then he 
 spoke in more serious tone. "Far be it from me, Dan, 
 to pry into your private affairs, but if it's a fair ques- 
 tion might I ask whether you are going up to see Norton 
 on League affairs or otherwise?" 
 
 Dan smiled and placed a hand on Walton's shoulder. 
 
 "Your question is perfectly fair", he said. "In fact, 
 John, I don't mind admitting that I am unaware of what 
 it's to be for, Norton merely asked me to see him."
 
 72 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Brave boy", exclaimed Walton resuming his jocular 
 tone, "and you're going up there in broad daylight. 
 What would the proletariat ensemble think of it if it 
 knew that?" 
 
 "Maybe envy me. Who knows ?" 
 
 "Maybe suspect you, you mean. The trouble with 
 the proletariat, my son, is that it is so infernally prone 
 to be suspicious of what it can't understand. I'll expect 
 you at the rooms tonight, sure." 
 
 ***** 
 
 In the reception room of the Mont's general office, 
 Bradshaw went through the formality of sending in his 
 name before being ushered into the inner precincts, only 
 in his case, progress to the private office of DeWitt Nor- 
 ton was made with far greater ease and promptness 
 than was the usual rule with visitors there. 
 
 Dan had spent several hours with Norton under- 
 ground that very morning and yet, at four o'clock that 
 afternoon, in Norton's private office Dan looked on a man 
 who seemed an utter stranger to him so great is the 
 effect of clothes and environment. He now saw stand- 
 ing beside the room's big, flat-topped mahogany desk a 
 distinguished-looking man of medium height, muscularly 
 built, with a strongly modeled and well-featured face, 
 keen but friendly eyes and wavy hair that was graying 
 at the temples. Such was DeWitt Norton at thirty-six. 
 
 "Take a chair, Mr. Bradshaw", he invited courte- 
 ously, and as Dan sat down, Norton took his place in his 
 swivel-chair behind his desk. "By the way, do you 
 smoke?" he asked opening a desk drawer and taking out 
 a box of cigars which he opened and extended hospitably 
 towards Dan. 
 
 "Occasionally, thank you", answered Bradshaw, help- 
 ing himself to a cigar,
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 73 
 
 Norton struck a match and handed it to Dan. 
 
 "Thanks", said the miner. 
 
 Dan liked the "meet-you-like-a-man-and-treat-you- 
 like-a-man" attitude of Norton. It was in keeping with 
 descriptions he had heard of the mine owner's manner- 
 isms. Bradshaw had entered the office determined, at 
 least subconsciously, to resent any patting-on-the-shoul- 
 der condescension and the entire absence of anything like 
 that he speedily observed. Covertly Dan studied Nor- 
 ton's face, while the latter lighted his cigar, and he had 
 readily to admit that Norton appeared to be very much 
 of a man's man. 
 
 "Bradshaw", began Norton leaning back in his chair, 
 "what mining experience have you had?" 
 
 "What I've learned mucking and machine drilling in 
 the Mont", answered Dan. 
 
 "You have some idea of the character of ore, haven't 
 you?" 
 
 "Oh, to some extent. A man naturally picks up more 
 or less of such information when he works in a mine." 
 Bradshaw smiled. "I think I could distinguish ore from 
 mere country rock underground or on the surface." 
 
 Norton puffed at his cigar for a moment or two and 
 then put it down on an ash-tray and looked steadfastly 
 at Bradshaw. 
 
 "That is to say, you could tell good from bad ore." 
 
 "Sometimes an assay, a test is needed even for 
 the most learned in that respect", said Dan steadily, 
 quickly catching the purport of Norton's words. "The 
 most unpromising appearing might sometimes assay sur- 
 prisingly good ore, I mean." 
 
 "Have you ever tried assaying?" asked Norton. 
 Bradshaw took his cigar from his mouth. 
 "Not ore", he responded.
 
 74 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Men?" asked Norton with a smile. 
 
 "Yes", answered Bradshaw evenly. "I think I usu- 
 ally get good returns in assaying men whom I think 
 worth while." 
 
 "An ability, I always have thought, that comes in 
 very well in the mining game", said Norton adroitly 
 turning the trend of the talk. "And now let me say most 
 emphatically", the mine owner continued, "that you cer- 
 tainly acted very quickly in an emergency this morning. 
 I know that most men of mining experience ought to be 
 able to smell a burning fuse and know that blasting is 
 threatened. I can detect that kind of danger myself 
 rather quickly and I caught the fuse smoke from the 
 stope this morning an instant after you did, but was 
 very impressed with your presence of mind." 
 
 "Thank you", Dan said quietly. "It was a case of 
 move quickly, I thought." 
 
 "You thought right", declared the other. "You know 
 and I know that fuses are not lighted until the shift is 
 off and that due warning is given in all directions. Now 
 somebody fixed up that 'gopher-hole' at a time that was 
 in violation of the rules. Somebody set off a timed fuse 
 and got away just before we reached the first ladder of 
 the stope. No warnings, of course, were given. All 
 these things were in direct violation of our strictest 
 rules. We both know that. You know, Bradshaw, that 
 the proposition is being investigated, but quietly." He 
 leaned forward and spoke tersely while gaze met gaze 
 unwaveringly. "Who was wanted you or me, or both 
 of us?" 
 
 Bradshaw's jaw set. 
 
 "Why do you ask me?" he questioned sharply. 
 
 "Pardon me", said Norton again leaning back in his 
 chair. "Please do not misunderstand me, but you must
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 75 
 
 realize that I as well as you stood to be injured, though 
 sometimes those 'gopher-shots' are not so very heavy." 
 
 "Excuse me, Mr. Norton," Dan hastened to say, for 
 like most quick-tempered men, Bradshaw as quickly re- 
 gretted any undue hastiness, "I do not mean to mis- 
 understand you and I quite realize the gravity of the 
 affair. Whoever planted that shot and whoever they 
 wanted to get, the fact remains that we were the ones 
 who almost got it, and that, I should imagine, is sufficient 
 basis for the most rigid investigation. If I ever find out 
 who did it, believe me sincerely I'll remove the necessity 
 of any further investigating on your part." 
 
 Norton smiled. He had been told that Bradshaw was 
 a good talker. 
 
 "I don't mind telling you Bradshaw," Norton went on 
 after a moment, "that Smith is to be transferred to an- 
 other part of the mine and you are going on as shift boss 
 on that level if you want to." 
 
 The offer of promotion very naturally pleased Brad- 
 shaw, but at the same time he thought of how such a 
 change in his status might effect the opinion of those he 
 deemed his followers toward him. 
 
 "If" , he began, but Norton interrupted. 
 
 "Permit me just this", said the mine owner, and he 
 looked directly at Dan, " you must not regard any ad- 
 vancement as a reward for I think I can see that you 
 would not accept it on that basis." 
 
 "You're right, Mr. Norton", said Bradshaw. "I will 
 be candid with you. If there was any merit in what I 
 did this morning I was actuated as much by a desire for 
 my own safety as that of all the others with me. I 
 couldn't accept any advancement merely because of 
 that."
 
 76 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "And I'll be frank with you Bradshaw", Norton re- 
 plied. "Your mining experience has been somewhat 
 limited thus far, but you are observant and learn quickly. 
 I want men in official positions in my properties who 
 think fast and act right at the right time because that 
 makes for general efficiency. I am in a way a manufac- 
 turer of a certain commodity and the better my working 
 force, the better for the industry and thus for all con- 
 cerned. That should remove your objection, I think." 
 
 Dan got up. 
 
 "I've tried to do my best while working for you, Mr. 
 Norton", he said, "and", again he smiled, "I'll try to de- 
 liver the goods in future." 
 
 Norton stood up and moved over to him. "Report to 
 Mr. Watson," he said, "and good luck, Bradshaw." He 
 held out his hand. "Keep your eyes open." 
 
 "Yes, I've been told that often since I began mining", 
 remarked Dan, as he shook hands with his employer. 
 ***** 
 
 Walton gave Dan a hearty welcome when the latter 
 reached the newspaperman's rooms that evening. 
 
 "Dan my lad, I'm off to California next week. Doc- 
 tor says I'd better go for a few weeks while the going's 
 good and get the remnants of that bad cold out of my 
 system. Some tough campaigns coming up next spring 
 and I want to be fit to handle them." 
 
 "Then you can consider that you're headed for that 
 part of California where my aunt and uncle are", de- 
 clared Dan. And he took up his argument to such effect 
 that Walton agreed to spend at least a portion of his so- 
 journ there. 
 
 Then the miner told his friend of the position of 
 shift boss tendered him, but he did not inform Walton of 
 what had brought him to such favorable notice because
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 77 
 
 he considered that Norton had exacted a promise of 
 secrecy from those who knew of the premature explosion. 
 
 "And so you are to be a shift boss. Good !" Walton 
 congratulated him. 
 
 "I don't know whether I ought to take it or not", said 
 Dan slowly. 
 
 "Some more of your proletarian scruples", remarked 
 the newspaperman. "Forget that stuff for a little while. 
 Why man, surely it is a fact that even with the prole- 
 tariat crowd nothing succeeds like success." 
 
 "If I thought it would make them listen more to me, 
 I'd take it", was Bradshaw's statement. 
 
 "Well, at any rate you must see that in such a posi- 
 tion you could be of more material aid in various ways 
 to your proletarian followers", Walton reached for his 
 pipe. 
 
 "Coming right down to facts", said Bradshaw, "it is 
 just that very consideration that induces me to take it." 
 
 "Dan, you're a wonder", declared Walton settling 
 back comfortably and regarding Bradshaw with an 
 amused look. "Gad, boy, you're a comer, but you ought 
 to broaden your scope. Don't get your perspective from 
 only one direction. Why won't you come with me into 
 circles you would enjoy? Doing that once in awhile 
 wouldn't lessen the strength of your principles any." 
 
 "Because, as I have told you before, John", replied 
 Bradshaw, "I wouldn't fit in logically at this time. You 
 know there can't be any jarring of the conventionalities." 
 
 "Fiddlesticks!" 
 
 "Yes, fiddlesticks if you please. I know that as a 
 prominent journalist oh yes, prominent, I repeat it 
 you have the entre into our most select circles and very 
 properly so. You indeed are a man of importance. Mr. 
 DeWitt Norton and his family circle and his other
 
 78 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 friends might not care to meet Mr. DeWitt Norton's 
 former mine mucker, erstwhile machine drill man and 
 new shift boss, socially." 
 
 "But" 
 
 "Yes I know just what you are about to say, old 
 chap. You want to tell me all about how self-made men 
 are honored and how labor conquers everything and all 
 the rest of it. And your platitudes are true, but you 
 forget that I am in the self -making and not at the 'made' 
 stage yet, and no matter what you or I or broad-minded 
 friends think and indeed you and I are broad-minded, 
 John, especially on the subject of our own worth there 
 still are certain social conventionalities and those rules 
 refuse to be jarred." 
 
 "If you're not good enough for any of them", Walton 
 exclaimed hotly, "then " 
 
 "They are not good enough for you", Dan finished 
 for him. "I thank you, friend, from the bottom of my 
 palpitating heart for your sentiments, but even you and 
 all your generous ideas cannot change the rules of the 
 game." 
 
 Walton reached forward and knocked the ashes from 
 his pipe into the fireplace. 
 
 "In some things, Daniel Bradshaw, you" 
 
 "I know", interrupted the miner with a grin, "I make 
 you sick."
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 WITHIN THE GATES 
 
 Walton was sincere in his offer to take Bradshaw 
 with him into those circles in which the newspaperman 
 had established himself by force of his ability, his person- 
 ality and his ever-increasing importance as an editor. A 
 man of character was Walton and while he recognized 
 those little niceties of conventional society, he despised 
 snobbishness. Bradshaw's employment in a mine, in 
 Walton's opinion, offered not the slightest reason why 
 the miner should be denied the privilege of mingling 
 with that stratum of society to which Bradshaw rightly 
 belonged. Of course the newspaperman was well aware 
 that even in the most exclusive society there were to be 
 found those who neither by reason of character nor any 
 other qualification were worthy of being there, but who 
 through some peculiar accident of Fate, attained to the 
 company of the elect. But Bradshaw was hot one of 
 these. Indeed Bradshaw was far superior to many 
 whom Walton had met in the inner precincts of Society. 
 * * * * * 
 
 On the following evening Walton was a visitor at the 
 DeWitt Norton home. There he always found a whole- 
 some atmosphere. In this beautiful mansion, with its 
 many and well chosen art treasures, prevailed a true 
 spirit of home, a sincerity and a refinement that appealed 
 immensely to Walton.
 
 80 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 In the spacious, rug-strewn drawing room with its 
 splendidly designed furniture Walton occupied a corner 
 of a deep, roomy Davenport, while Norton lounged in a 
 comfortable leather arm-chair. The lovely Miss Mary 
 Norton, DeWitt's sister, sat at the grand piano, her 
 fingers lightly caressing the keys while beside her stood 
 another girl, Margaret Hanlon, whose beauty claimed 
 much of Walton's attention. She had a charming voice 
 and at the solicitation of both Norton and Walton, Mar- 
 garet sang several delightful little songs, while Mary 
 played her accompaniment. 
 
 "So you are going to California next Sunday night, 
 Mr. Walton", said Mary Norton, as she moved away 
 from the piano. 
 
 "Direct to the Pacific coast", he replied, making room 
 for her on the Davenport beside him. 
 
 "And a week from Sunday night DeWitt, Margaret 
 and I leave for New York", Mary went on. "Margaret 
 won't stay with us long though, for she insists on going 
 directly to Palm Beach to join her mother." 
 
 "I fear Mother will be wondering what has become 
 of her wandering chee-ild", said Margaret, smilingly. 
 "When you are in California, Mr. Walton, I hope you 
 will find time to write that book you told us about." 
 
 The newspaperman looked at her with slightly nar- 
 rowed eyes. He wondered how sincere was her apparent 
 interest in him. "It's merely in the notion stage at 
 present" he remarked smiling. "I've the idea that Butte 
 offers as good a subject as I possibly could find and I am 
 anxious to try it." 
 
 "Indeed yes," exclaimed Norton. "Is it to be a pioneer 
 or a modern day story?"
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 81 
 
 "A little of both", replied Walton. "The romance of 
 mining, as I think of it, has not gone because mines have 
 become vast enterprises." 
 
 "You are right about that", assented Norton. "The 
 game is as full of adventure today as ever, I think." 
 
 "Take, for example, the heroism of mine rescues", 
 Mary suggested. 
 
 "Think of the tragedies and near-tragedies and other 
 vital dramas enacted far underground", Walton went on 
 enthusiastically. 
 
 "Yes", remarked Norton somewhat dryly. "I have 
 thought of them rather frequently." 
 
 "And romance", the newspaperman continued. 
 "There is as much individual romance connected with 
 the mining industry today as there ever was, though 
 doubtless of a different sort. It is mighty fascinating, 
 too. You know, I didn't get my information in that re- 
 gard at second-hand." 
 
 "I think your having worked in a mine right here in 
 Butte, Mr. Walton, is most interesting", Margaret said. 
 "Several of the boys with whom I went to school here 
 are mining engineers now. My dad worked in a mine 
 when he was a young man," she added proudly. 
 
 "And so did mine", declared Mary. 
 
 "And a good miner at that", Norton exclaimed. 
 
 "Yes, and after they made their way to fortune", re- 
 marked the newspaperman, after a brief pause, "they 
 went on to fame because they were broad-minded, edu- 
 cated men, who continued to educate themselves all the 
 more after they got the fortunes. They stand out heroic 
 and romantic. I know of a man in this town now,- 
 miner who is much like that in the making." 
 
 "You do?" asked Mary. "Please tell us about him". 
 
 Walton laughed. "I'm afraid I might bore you"
 
 82 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "But we do want you to tell us", Margaret insisted. 
 
 "I met him when he first came here", Walton began. 
 "He never had been down a mine before, but he took to 
 mining as a duck takes to water. He is a strong man, 
 physically and mentally and has a good education. In 
 my opinion, he has knightly qualities, but perhaps I am 
 prejudiced in his favor." 
 
 "Oh, how really romantic!" exclaimed Mary Norton. 
 
 "He is chuck full of the romance of life too", Walton 
 continued. "He started as a mucker a shoveler, you 
 know, and then worked his way up to a machine-drill 
 man. And he's going higher. He deserves the oppor- 
 tunity to do so. I feel sure that if he had wanted to de- 
 vote himself to some other line of work affording the 
 chance of quicker advancement, he would have made 
 much more rapid progress." 
 
 "Why does he remain where he is?" asked Norton. 
 
 "He thinks he has a mission to perform; he's thor- 
 oughly sincere about it." 
 
 "A mission?" queried Mary. 
 
 "Yes, he wants to lead the people with whom he 
 labors, on to a better, higher status by teaching them a 
 different, a better viewpoint". 
 
 "He's tackling an immeasurably bigger job than he 
 probably imagines it to be", commented Norton. "The 
 sort of purpose you say he has, Walton, is much as if he 
 were playing with fire apt to burn a lot of innocent 
 persons and incidentally perish himself in the flames." 
 
 "From Mr. Walton's description of him", said Mary 
 slowly, "he would seem to be a modern knight-errant. I 
 know there are men of that kind in the mines. I would 
 like to meet him." 
 
 "It would be difficult to get him to enter what he
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 83 
 
 calls 'the sacred precincts', Miss Norton", Walton in- 
 formed her. 
 
 "Just the same, I might meet him some day", she 
 said. "Do you know, I rather think I would know him 
 were I to see him just from what you have told us of 
 him." 
 
 "I should judge him to be a strong man", Norton 
 summed up. "Doubtless a man of good brain. But a man 
 of his theories generally has to go through the scorifying 
 process, before he comes out the better, the finer and the 
 greater influence for general good. But a man of that 
 kind often makes a crucible for his own firing and that 
 very fact makes the trial by fire all the more severe. If 
 he survives it, he might become a great man. If he does 
 not, he goes down to the very depths of his crucible, there 
 
 to be consumed." 
 
 ***** 
 
 Later, when Norton had left them to answer a tele- 
 phone message and his sister was in the dining room ar- 
 ranging their little supper, Walton was left alone with 
 Margaret. 
 
 "I won't have a chance to see you again for several 
 months," he said, "even if you do come out here again in 
 the Spring." 
 
 "I surely expect to be back here then", said the girl. 
 
 "It certainly will seem a long winter", Walton sighed. 
 
 "But you will be among the sunshine and flowers in 
 California for some of the time", she told him sincerely. 
 
 "Just for a small part of the winter", he conceded. 
 
 "And you will be busy with your work, won't you?" 
 
 A frown passed over Walton's face. "Work is not 
 everything," he said. 
 
 "I shall be very disappointed if you do not work on 
 the book," she said earnestly. And for a moment her 
 eyes met his,
 
 CHAPTER X 
 STORM CLOUDS 
 
 On Sunday night, Dan went with Walton to the 
 depot and, as they said goodbye, Walton made Dan reit- 
 erate his promise to keep his friend posted on the trend 
 of Butte events. 
 
 Returning up town, Dan hesitated between going to 
 League headquarters or to Carty's. In the end he com- 
 promised by strolling into Klemner's shop where he en- 
 countered Chris, all togged out in his Sunday finery. 
 
 "Meelie an' me ve go to show", Chris informed him 
 with a grin. 
 
 But Millie was then inclined to veto the plan. 
 
 "Oh, we can all stay here and have a kind of a party 
 at home", she ventured blithely. 
 
 Chris objected. "Ay got tickets for da show", he in- 
 sisted. 
 
 "You mustn't let me spoil your afternoon", Brad- 
 shaw came to his rescue. 
 
 The girl tossed her head. "Come on then, Chris", she 
 commanded. 
 
 After they had gone, Dan and the shoemaker car- 
 ried on a desultory conversation while the latter pottered 
 about the shop and Bradshaw turned his attention to the 
 shelf where Klemner kept the files of the paper contain- 
 ing Clairmont's articles. Under a stack of papers there, 
 Dan came on the grammar he had given Millie and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 85 
 
 which she must have inadvertantly left in that place. He 
 smiled to himself as he glanced through it and noted how 
 very little it had been used. 
 
 From Klemner's, Dan made his way towards Carty's. 
 Passing his boarding house he met Paddy Skiff emerg- 
 ing from the hostelry with Mrs. Inez Harrity confidently 
 holding to his sturdy left arm. 
 
 "To the movies", announced Paddy with a triumph- 
 ant grin as they sailed by. 
 
 At Carty's, Dan met Jackson. 
 
 "Aren't you on night shift since you were transferred 
 to the sixteen-hundred?" asked Dan. "What are you do- 
 ing laying off?" 
 
 "Layin' off nothin' laid off", answered Jackson. 
 
 Dan took him over to a table and there with 'alf-and- 
 'alf mixtures before them, Jackson told his story. 
 
 "It's all on 'spicion, far's I'm concerned", declared 
 Jackson. "I know they're cleanin' out the mine of a 
 lot of the bad stuff, but you see, Dan, where it works bad 
 is that it gives some shift boss who's got it in fer a man 
 a chance to git him if he wants to." 
 
 "Who had it in for you?" asked Bradshaw. 
 
 "Smith, I think. He's bin sore at me since he was took 
 out of the eighteen-hundred to make way fer you 'cause 
 he knows I'm a friend of yours. He got a good chance 
 to git me an' I guess he has." 
 
 "There are other places", Dan suggested. 
 
 "You don't see me worryin' ", remarked Jackson, as 
 he reached for his glass. "Only I done good work in the 
 Mont an' it's a raw deal I got." 
 
 "You can bet the real higher-ups don't know it", Dan 
 told him. "Who else was fired?" 
 
 "Four or five of the boys four I think James, Har- 
 rington, Dunleavy an' Lands."
 
 86 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Those boys are all right", declared Bradshaw. "This 
 thing ought to be investigated." 
 
 "Yeh, some of the boys say they're goin' to spring it 
 at the League meetin' tomorrow night", Jackson in- 
 formed him. 
 
 Bradshaw frowningly studied the situation. 
 
 "If they say they will I suppose they will", he said 
 slowly, "but I really think I could fix it better myself." 
 
 "Sure thing you could", Jackson agreed emphatically. 
 * * * * * 
 
 Millie and Chris returned to Klemner's at a surpris- 
 ingly early hour. "Oh it was only that same vaudeville 
 show we seen last week", Millie explained to her father. 
 "How long you been here alone?" 
 
 "An hour or so", he told her. 
 
 "Huh!" she ejaculated. "Seems like Dan Bradshaw 
 ain't got much patience 'round this place any more." 
 
 Chris said nothing, but ran his fingers slcrwly 
 through his thick, tightly curled hair. 
 ***** 
 
 The next evening before the meeting of the League, 
 to which the members were looking forward with such 
 interest because of Bradshaw's scheduled report concern- 
 ing Wilkins and Snitch, Vignon appeared at Carty's 
 where he drank enough to induce a belligerent mood. At 
 intervals he pounded on the bar and voiced his feelings 
 in the emphatic but rather general term : "To hell with 
 'em". 
 
 Crunch had a place at the bar and he was expatiating 
 on the beauties of Shakespeare to a couple of blear-eyed 
 persons who did not know if Shakespeare had been a 
 writer or was a well-known baseball player. But they 
 urged Crunch to proceed whenever he hesitated.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 87 
 
 After a time, Crunch, flushed of face and with abnor- 
 mally bright eyes, withdrew from the line and made his 
 unsteady way to one of the tables, where he endeavored 
 with much difficulty to mount it. Finally sprawling for- 
 ward on its top, he managed to gather himself up on all 
 fours and thus he remained peering at those who had 
 turned from the bar to observe his antics. One of the 
 two whom Crunch had been initiating into the delights 
 of the Bard of Avon, regarded him with mock serious- 
 ness. "There ain't no such animul", said one facetiously, 
 shaking his head slowly while the other spectators 
 laughed. 
 
 But Crunch, with one hand raised, paid no heed to 
 that and began to declaim: 
 
 " Trien's, Rom'ns, coun'rymen, len' 
 me y'ears ;' ' 
 
 That seemed to arouse Vignon's sense of humor. "Oh 
 ho ho ears, ears," he roared out in his bull voice. 
 
 Crunch, evidently considering that as encouragement, 
 went on more vehemently: "We mus' control situa- 
 shun." 
 
 And that doubtless recalled to Vignon that he was 
 about due at League headquarters for he abruptly strode 
 out, leaving the door open. 
 
 Carty came around from back of the bar, wiping his 
 hands on his apron, and grasping Crunch by the coat col- 
 lar, jerked him from the table and over to a chair in a 
 corner. Then he kicked the door shut and trade at the 
 bar resumed. 
 
 When Vignon reached League headquarters he first 
 encountered a group of members whose chairs formed a 
 semi-circle in front of the seated Cronel. "I have spoken 
 to you of the bourgeois class," Cronel was saying. "Let 
 me further explain". He stretched out a long right arm
 
 88 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 so that his big and knobby wrist showed. "In the days 
 of the Reign of Terror which France was undergoing " 
 
 But Vignon did not wait to hear more. 
 
 "Hell", he muttered disgustedly, "what's France got 
 to do with it?" Noisily he proceeded along the hall to a 
 favorite place where presently some of his following be- 
 gan to congregate to listen to his sentiments which had 
 become even more viciously candid in the past few days. 
 As he paused, Cronel could be heard declaring his notions 
 to his few devoted followers : 
 
 "First came the animal, then savagery, then chattel- 
 ism and later came feudalism. The present method is 
 just another form of evolution and its got to move on 
 with the rest." 
 
 "That guy's the limit", exclaimed Vignon exasperat- 
 edly. "He's always yappin' 'bout what's goin' to be done, 
 what kin be done, what might be done, an' never doin' 
 nothin'. With me it's differen'. I'm fer action, direc' 
 action. We're goin' to git what we want or we raise 
 hell see? Len' me yer ears, you guys" This phrase 
 produced an effect on his listeners that gratified Vignon, 
 and he resolved to make frequent use of it "we're after 
 the labor jurisdiction in this town an' we're goin' to git 
 it." Vignon paused. His audience drew their chairs 
 closer to him for this sort of talk pleased it immensely. 
 And as it was still an hour until meeting time, Vignon 
 and his coterie devoted themselves to a discussion of 
 jurisdictional demands to be made. They sneered at 
 Bradshaw's advance to the position of shift boss. But 
 just then Dan came into the hall, and if he heard what 
 they were saying, Bradshaw contented himself with an 
 inward smile. He awaited the psychological moment for 
 denouncing them.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 89 
 
 When the meeting was called to order, routine pro- 
 cedure was quickly disposed of and Cronel called for 
 Dan's report. 
 
 Bradshaw arose, and a hush came over the meeting. 
 
 "Fellow Workers", he began, "I have investigated 
 the Wilkins and Snitch case. They themselves admit 
 twisting off the switch. They" 
 
 "What of it?" called out Vignon. "Is this to be a 
 white- washin* of the comp'ny?" 
 
 Dan turned a flushed face in Vignon's direction. "If 
 the interrupting member wants to take personal issue 
 with what I say", Dan shouted in a challenging tone, "he 
 can wait until after the meeting and I'll give him all 
 the" 
 
 "Order, order", Cronel interrupted, pounding on his 
 desk. 
 
 There were many growing murmurs around the hall 
 but as Dan spoke there came a silence among the mem- 
 bers. Dan said emphatically even defiantly: 
 
 "These two fellows, Wilkins and Snitch, are no good 
 and you know it. They are a disgrace to this or any 
 other organization and their actions bring discredit on 
 us. I move that this League let the matter drop" 
 
 Despite hands that sought to restrain him, Vignon 
 struggled to his feet. Many of his followers stood up 
 with him. 
 
 "What the hell kind of talk's that?" bellowed Vignon. 
 
 Hands were reached out to draw him back to his 
 chair, but Vignon swung his fist viciously at the nearest 
 member, missing that member's nose by a scant margin. 
 
 Other members jumped to their feet and tried to 
 make themselves heard. 
 
 There was increasing confusion. 
 
 Vignon continued to struggle with those about him.
 
 90 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Bradshaw stood straight and defiant. 
 
 Cronel continued to pound on his desk. "Order, or- 
 der," he shouted. 
 
 Vignon shook a fist at Cronel. "I'll git yuh too, yuh 
 nut!" Vignon yelled. 
 
 Bradshaw sprang on a chair. 
 
 "Shut up, everybody", he shouted above the din of 
 voices, and suddenly there was a cessation of the hubbub 
 while the members regarded him intently. 
 
 "How can you fellows get fair play if you don't want 
 to give it?" he demanded with flashing eyes, his face 
 thrust forward at the Vignon contingent. "There's other 
 business to be considered here about damn-sight better 
 men being fired, and they're the ones we want to talk 
 about." 
 
 As this was news to the League, it was content to let 
 Bradshaw have the opportunity he wanted to speak. 
 Vignon permitted himself to be drawn back onto his 
 chair. 
 
 But at this point, Jackson, the good-natured and usu- 
 ally the very mild, did just what the good-natured and 
 the very mild sometimes do he lost his temper. Jump- 
 ing up from his place, near the front of the hall, he be- 
 gan with an emphasis that at once claimed attention. 
 
 "Bradshaw's right", he called out. "I'm one of the 
 fellers he's talkin' 'bout now an' I'm speakin' fer the 
 rest of us wat got canned last, an' I'm here to say Brad- 
 shaw's good 'nough to do all the investigatin' fer me an' 
 them too." 
 
 Jackson sat down and so did Bradshaw when Cronel, 
 now better able to control the situation, rapped on his 
 desk with both hands and again asked for order.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 91 
 
 "Comrades", said Cronel, "let's not lose sight of reg- 
 ular business. Let's not be carried away by outbreaks. 
 Let's find out about this new order of business." 
 
 In that way Cronel utilized a very opportune means 
 of diverting attention to something of new, and thus of 
 more, interest. And anyhow, the membership had no 
 erroneous ideas as to the merit and importance of Wil- 
 kins and Snitch but knew that they had been made sub- 
 jects of League consideration only because they were 
 creatures of Vignon, and to some extent because their 
 case represented something tangible in affording oppo- 
 sition to what Vignon always spoke of to them as the 
 "system". 
 
 "Let us have the information regarding your affair, 
 Comrade Jackson", requested the president. 
 
 Jackson got up and made a brief statement of the 
 discharge of the four men and himself, concluding with 
 reiterating that the other four men and he wanted Brad- 
 shaw to investigate their case. 
 
 In turn each of the other four men arose and sub- 
 stantiated Jackson's statements. 
 
 "Does anyone desire to put that in the form of a mo- 
 tion?" asked Cronel. 
 
 Jackson formally moved that Bradshaw be chosen the 
 investigator of the new case and the motion was quickly 
 seconded by each of the other four men involved. 
 
 Before the vote was called for, Vignon arose. He 
 had himself better in hand now, but he spoke with cut- 
 ting sarcasm. He scoffed at any investigations by any- 
 one who very evidently, he said, was not in harmony or 
 sympathy with the purposes of the League and who did 
 not intend to be a factor in advancing the organization's 
 cause. He declared that Wilkins and Snitch had afforded 
 the League ample chance to make a stand even to the
 
 92 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 extent of fomenting a strike, but that the League's back- 
 bone had not grown proportionately with its member- 
 ship. As for Jackson and the other four men, if they 
 wanted Bradshaw to do the investigating for them he 
 was satisfied, but he was confident that the League's in- 
 fluence and importance already had been threatened by 
 the disposition that had been shown in the investigating 
 of the Wilkins-Snitch case, and that any more disregard 
 of the League's power and purposes would be the organ- 
 ization's ruination. He, for one, did not propose to stand 
 idly by and not raise his voice in protest against the ruin- 
 ing of the League. 
 
 He sat down and noisy applause resounded. 
 
 Bradshaw arose to reply. He, too, had himself in 
 hand. He expressed himself surprised that any member 
 of the League should try to make it appear that the or- 
 ganization sanctioned lawlessness. He could not see how 
 the League logically could uphold Wilkins and Snitch in 
 what they had done, if the League opposed lawlessness. 
 And certainly the League advocated law and order. 
 Bradshaw was astonished to learn from any member 
 that the League was looking for an excuse to urge a 
 strike. He wanted justice to prevail at all times but he 
 could not understand why the League should favor action 
 that instead of making for work on equitable conditions 
 would tend to deprive the membership of work. 
 
 "Wurk, wurk, that's all ye think of is wurk", some- 
 one remarked. "We ain't so crazy fer wurk". 
 
 Which statement brought a laugh. 
 
 Cronel called for the vote. 
 
 There was just as much noise when the affirmative 
 vote was shouted out as when the negative vote ensued. 
 
 Cronel hesitated, undecided as to what announcement 
 he should make regarding the outcome of the voting. It
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 9E 
 
 looked as if the membership actually intended making 
 sport of him, with the five men concerned and with Brad- 
 shaw. 
 
 Dan stood up. 
 
 "I arise to a point of personal privilege", he said, 
 "and we'll settle this." 
 
 The president nodded approvingly, glad to let some- 
 one else handle the situation. 
 
 "Fellow Workers", began Bradshaw facing the bulk 
 of the membership and talking evenly with a steely qual- 
 ity in his tone, "if there is any member here who thinks 
 I wouldn't give these five men a square deal in investi- 
 gating their affair or that I wouldn't carry their case 
 right up to the highest official himself, Norton I mean 
 because I have their word they didn't deserve what 
 they got, I ask that one to stand up. Or if there is any 
 one here who thinks I haven't given the League a square 
 deal or wouldn't do so, I ask that one to stand up." 
 
 He waited. 
 
 No one arose. 
 
 There was a snicker from a corner of the hall and 
 then a murmur of voices. 
 
 Bradshaw turned to Cronel. 
 
 "Mr. President, I ask for a decision on the vote." 
 
 Cronel rubbed his chin. 
 
 More laughter ensued from the body of the hall 
 
 "Let him do it, Cronel," came a voice from somewhere 
 near the back of the room. "Those five guys want him." 
 
 "It's their funeral", shouted another. 
 
 "Alright, let th' wise guy do it", another called from 
 behind the cover of his hand. 
 
 "The 'ayes' appear to have it", decreed Cronei.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Immediately the members began to leave. There was 
 no regular adjournment. 
 
 But there were more individual fights that night, in- 
 side and outside the League's headquarters, than ever 
 Before in its career.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE GIRL OF THE TRAIN 
 
 Immediately on coming off shift the following after- 
 noon Dan went to the Monticana building to present the 
 case of Jackson and the four others to DeWitt Norton* 
 but he found that the mine owner was out of town and 
 was not expected back until the following Saturday. 
 
 Bradshaw would have liked to have had a talk with 
 Walton, but as he could not do that he went home to 
 write a letter to his friend. 
 
 "I am up against the Direct Actionist element in the 
 League," he wrote in his bold, characteristic hand. "It 
 involves the blind prejudice and unreasoning hatred of 
 Vignon and his gang against any sort of industrial wel- 
 fare or harmony. Much to my deep regret, some of 
 those Leaguers on whom I counted, have come to have 
 the foolish notion that maybe, after all, Vignon's way 
 might be the more effective. Coarse and loud talking 
 seem to have a lot of influence with his followers. It 
 makes them think there actually is a way for them either 
 to take over all industrial properties or destroy them and 
 start their own. It is too bad that all the League mem- 
 bers are in danger of being stigmatized as Direct Action- 
 ists. Believe me dear friend, I find it some job trying to 
 steer the League-craft safely over the boiling waters be- 
 tween the Scylla of Direct Actionism and the Charybdis 
 of an as yet unorganized radicalism that also borders on
 
 96 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 red anarchy. But if I win out the victory will be all the 
 greater and the sweeter." 
 
 Then Dan went on to tell of other things : 
 "If I am destined not to help humanity's cause in 
 some degree of leadership, at least I may be of service in 
 another way. I am a potential inventor yes indeed. 
 Ever since that cage accident in the 'See-Saw' mine I 
 have been giving the vitally important subject of safety 
 clutches for mine cages considerable attention, and I 
 think I have hit on a new principle." 
 
 Having finished and mailed his letter to Walton, 
 Bradshaw wandered up in the direction of Carty's, but 
 he did not enter the saloon. Instead, he walked on away 
 from the roadway until he was a little above where the 
 Lane and the mine road joined. There he came to a jut- 
 ting boulder on which he seated himself and looked over 
 the city twinkling out in its night lights, to the far 
 ranges in the last of their eventide glory. A great lone- 
 liness swept over him. Through his mind ran hopes and 
 longings. He wanted to be introspective. He wanted to 
 analyze his status. But finally he had to admit to him- 
 self that he was weary and what he wanted most was a 
 comforting hand and a soothing voice. How wonderful 
 it would be to meet "The Girl of the Train" in some such 
 purple restfulness as that above the tops of the moun- 
 tains! With her true, understanding eyes, intently re- 
 garding him with almost a maternal solicitude in their 
 clear depths, how comforting it would be to pour out to 
 her his hopes and his fears, his ambitions, his strivings 
 and the longing of his soul to win that success which 
 would make him worthy in her eyes. She would know 
 how hard was the way. She would understand that en- 
 vironment had not changed, could not change that innate 
 quality that was his birthright. And with her to stimu-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 97 
 
 late him to every mental and moral effort, how he could 
 work for her, fight for her and succeed for her! 
 
 The darkness of the night was all about him and he 
 arose and drew in a full breath. Verily he had been 
 dreaming. But his dream seemed to go with the van- 
 ishing purple of evening. Through his mind flashed a 
 curious thought The only feminine companionship 
 available to him was Millie Klemner. 
 
 Dan smiled grimly and went to League headquarters. 
 
 Bradshaw was talking to the secretary in the latter's 
 little room when Vignon, accompanied by Wilkins and 
 Snitch, slouched in from the assembly hall. Vignon 
 made as if to talk business with the secretary and then 
 pretended to have observed for the first time since en- 
 tering the room that Bradshaw was there. 
 
 "Havin' some trouble seem' yer frien' " he sneered, 
 for Dan had made it known to some of the members that 
 he had decided to await the return of DeWitt Norton be- 
 fore seeking an adjustment of the case concerning Jack- 
 son and the other four. 
 
 "I always can see my friends/' Bradshaw replied 
 pointedly, but he knew to what Vignon referred. 
 
 "Yeh?" remarked Vignon with a swagger of his 
 shoulders as he shifted from one foot to the other. 
 "Maybe some of these days that ain't all you'll see." 
 
 But it was the sneering smiles on the faces of Wil- 
 kins and Snitch that irritated Dan most. 
 
 "I'll ask you to step outside, Vignon", he invited. 
 "You leave your two hobo friends here and we'll go out 
 and settle up." 
 
 Wilkins scowled at Bradshaw from what he consid- 
 ered the safe protection of his chief. "Don't go, Mike," 
 he advised Vignon. "Don't take no chances wid 'em he 
 might knife yuh."
 
 98 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Bradshaw's fist shot out and Wilkins keeled over 
 backwards, toppled across a chair and rolled to the floor. 
 Men came hurriedly from the assembly hall and clus- 
 tered around the principals. The following instant Brad- 
 shaw was ready for Vignon, but the latter only leered at 
 Dan for a moment and then ungraciously nudging Wil- 
 kins with his foot ordered him to "git up". Wilkins, 
 with the aid of a chair, managed to get to his feet. 
 
 There were sullen mutterings among the spectators 
 and Dan sensed that they were antagonistic to him. 
 
 "Yeh he's beginnin' to use rough stuff", some man 
 at the edge of the surrounding group said just loud 
 enough for Dan to hear. 
 
 "Where'd he git the idea he kin hit a guy what don't 
 happin' to agree with 'im?" another remarked. 
 
 Paddy Skiff forced his way through to Dan's side. 
 "Come on let's take a walk", he prompted, and Brad- 
 shaw, slowly turning, shouldered his way through the 
 crowd. 
 
 "Fer the sake of commin sense", broke out Paddy 
 when they were beyond the League's doors, "can't ye see 
 Vignon's f ramin' up all kinds of things f er ye ? I'm glad 
 I come when I did. That mixup in there was a plant 
 a stall to git ye in wrong some more." 
 
 "Plant or no plant", Bradshaw answered decisively, 
 "I'd do the same thing over a dozen times. I couldn't 
 let a cur like Wilkins get away with what he said. And 
 Vignon" 
 
 Paddy interrupted him. "Now don't ye go gittin' off 
 wrong on Vignon. He's a fighter all right an' when he 
 didn't jump in an' give ye battle 'twas that he had a 
 rsason fer not doin' so. Mind me Vignon'll go an' go 
 hard when it comes to a fight, Dan, an' ye know it. He 
 sure fixed up that stall in there, I tell ye. He wanted fer
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 99 
 
 to make it look like ye are a sore-head an' want to run 
 ev'rything in the League to suit yerself. Ye see? He's 
 sendin' ye in wrong with the rest of the bunch." 
 
 "Kismet", said Dan philosophically, extending his 
 hands before him. 
 
 "What say?" asked Paddy, eyeing him closely. 
 
 "Merely, let it go at that", answered Bradshaw, 
 conclusively. 
 
 Bradshaw heard of Norton's return on Saturday. 
 And after he came on top and changed his clothes, Dan 
 went to the Monticana building. But there he was in- 
 formed that the mine owner was not in his office and was 
 not expected back there that day, as he had completed his 
 Butte business preparatory to leaving for New York. So 
 Dan resolved to go to the Norton home in the evening and 
 endeavor to see the mine owner there. For Bradshaw 
 wanted to rectify the wrong if he could, that he felt had 
 been done Jackson and the other four men in question. 
 Also, he was well aware that if he failed to see Norton 
 after having let it be known he intended to carry the 
 case directly to him, his leadership in the League would 
 be seriously threatened. 
 
 On his way from the boarding house that evening, 
 Dan ran into Jackson. 
 
 "News fer you, Bradshaw", Jackson greeted him. 
 "Us fellers in that case you're to investigate got jobs 
 today. We wasn't afraid, Dan, that you couldn't get us 
 back in the Mont, but as long as we had a chance to go 
 to work we thought we'd best do it." 
 
 "Good for you!" said Bradshaw, "but I've got to go 
 on with the affair because there is a principle involved. 
 It's a matter of justice to the men and to the ownership. 
 I think Norton would appreciate knowing everything 
 that goes on in his properties."
 
 100 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 A street car took Dan within a block of the Norton 
 mansion. Soon he was walking briskly up the wide, ce- 
 ment roadway that swept in ample curve around three 
 big trees to a short distance in front of the broad, stone 
 steps leading to the pillared veranda. 
 
 In response to his request to see DeWitt Norton, the 
 housemaid who answered the ring of the door-bell, bade 
 him step into the spacious reception hall. There he stood 
 waiting the return of the maid. 
 
 She was back in a surprisingly short time. 
 
 "Mr. Norton asks that you wait a moment in the 
 library", she told him, conducting him to a big, book- 
 lined room that at once won Dan's heart. He was stand- 
 ing at a book shelf beside the wide and evidently much 
 used fireplace, looking at the titles of the volumes, when 
 the sound of a girl's voice caused him to turn around. 
 As he did so Mary Norton and Margaret Hanlon entered 
 the library from the drawing room. At first they did 
 not see him. 
 
 And then for a brief moment Mary Norton was look- 
 ing straight at Dan Bradshaw. Involuntarily he raised 
 his head, momentarily taken off his guard, for here, in- 
 deed, was the girl of the roadway above Carty's "The 
 Girl of the Train." 
 
 For a fleeting instant her eyes widened. And then 
 came a moment of hesitancy a moment pregnant with 
 possibilities, as the man and the girl looked into each 
 other's eyes. 
 
 Words came pounding in Dan's brain. 
 
 "Do you know me? Are you glad to see me?" But, 
 slightly bowing his head, he managed : "I beg your par- 
 don I am waiting for Mr. Norton." 
 
 She smiled in the way he so well remembered. "I 
 am sure my brother will be here right away", she said.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 101 
 
 Then with a friendly little nod, she stepped back, and 
 with her friend left the room. 
 
 On their way upstairs, the two girls met Norton de- 
 scending. 
 
 "Who is the man waiting for you in the library, De- 
 Witt?" demanded his sister. 
 
 "His name is Bradshaw", answered Norton. 
 
 "The man you said Mr. Walton meant when he told 
 us of his friend in the mine?" she questioned. 
 
 "The very same", Norton nodded, as he proceeded 
 
 down stairs to meet the miner. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 "Romance with a vengeance !" remarked Margaret as 
 she and Mary went to the latter's sitting room. "He 
 doesn't look anything like an anarchist." 
 
 "He's not supposed to be one", said Mary. "He's 
 some sort of a labor leader." Then, more slowly ; "But if 
 he's really an anarchist he must be one of a new school 
 of anarchy that believes in looking neat and indulging in 
 becoming haircuts." 
 
 # * * * * 
 
 Norton greeted Bradshaw in a friendly but very busi- 
 nesslike way. For the mine owner was no novice in the 
 matter of special visits from labor leaders or employes. 
 
 "Mr. Norton, I regret having had to disturb you this 
 evening", Dan began, "but I had to see you before you 
 left town. I've come about an injustice to five men who 
 were miners at the Mont." Then he briefly gave the de- 
 tails of the case. 
 
 "Isn't this a matter which properly should have been 
 taken up first with the foreman or superintendent of the 
 Mont?" asked Norton coolly, resting his strong, capable 
 hands on the arms of his chair and leaning forward as if 
 to arise. "If they refused to consider the matter, it
 
 102 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 would receive my prompt consideration whether you 
 reached me personally or by written communication." 
 
 "It is not a question now of the men's reinstate- 
 ment", said Dan. "They have secured work elsewhere, 
 but there is a principle involved that should be consid- 
 ered." 
 
 "And the League is very much concerned in the jus- 
 tice part of the proposition", remarked Norton. "Go 
 on." 
 
 "We admit that some men have been discharged for 
 good cause", Dan continued. "In fact there was an in- 
 vestigation as to a couple of them fired from the Golden 
 West for twisting off a switch lever. Maybe you heard 
 of the incident?" 
 
 "I did." 
 
 "The League was told that those two men deserved to 
 be discharged." 
 
 "Who told the League that?" 
 
 Bradshaw's eyebrows contracted slightly. "That was 
 a matter of committee report." 
 
 Norton smiled slightly. "I see." 
 
 "As for these five men now in question, I can vouch 
 for their good character. The point we wish to make is 
 that a mine worker who might incur the enmity of a 
 shift boss could be summarily thrown out of work and 
 perhaps discredited with the other mining companies." 
 
 "We want no petty tyrants in the mines", declared 
 Norton, "and we are getting rid of them as quickly as 
 possible. But I still say that you should first have taken 
 this matter up with the foreman or the superintendent, 
 both of whom are just men in every way and are entitled 
 to the courtesy of the first say." 
 
 "Mr. Norton, were these five men fired because they 
 are members of the League?" asked Bradshaw.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 103 
 
 Norton stood up and the miner did likewise. "I don't 
 like your question", declared the mine owner. "It pre- 
 supposes coercion and all that sort of thing. But since 
 you've asked that question, I'll ask you one in return. 
 Isn't it so that the League is only a Direct Actionist 
 lodge?" 
 
 "Direct Actionist control is what I and those with 
 me are fighting", replied Bradshaw, "and if we are suc- 
 cessful in getting justice for League members in some 
 things, we can prevent the Direct Actionists from con- 
 trolling the League." 
 
 "Bradshaw", said Norton emphatically, "you can't 
 convince even yourself that the League is not controlled 
 by the Direct Actionists. Not only are most of its mem- 
 bers spouting Direct Actionist ideas in the mines, but 
 actually are trying to practice sabotage with a view to 
 more concerted action of that kind. Direct Actionism is 
 a threat against the welfare of this nation and if it con- 
 tinues, the time must come when the government will 
 have to recognize it as a grave danger and act accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 "I am no Direct Actionist", Bradshaw maintained 
 stoutly. 
 
 "Then you're in damn bad company", Norton replied 
 vigorously. 
 
 "As long as you suspect me, too", exclaimed Brad- 
 shaw, "I may as well say I'm through working for you." 
 
 "I never ask a man who works for me what his 
 religion is, how he votes or anything else personal so 
 long as he delivers the goods. I hire his efficiency, that's 
 all. Direct Actionism is unworthy, un-American and 
 tends to disrupt industrial harmony. Your personal 
 purpose may be good, but you are in with a bad lot for
 
 104 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 all your altruistic notions, and sometime you may find 
 that out to your regret." 
 
 "I'll take that chance", returned Bradshaw. "But 
 I'm not going to stand for dictation." 
 
 Norton's nostrils dilated as they had a way of doing 
 when anger mastered him. "I don't want to dictate to 
 you", he said emphatically. "Do as you please. I am 
 entirely too busy to bother about your views or your 
 plans." 
 
 Bradshaw retorted with equal heat. "I may not be 
 important to you, but I am very important to myself and 
 I hope to be important to certain others. What I said 
 about being through working for you goes I'm 
 through." He made a gesture as though sweeping some- 
 thing aside. 
 
 Norton reached out, touched a button on the wall, and 
 almost immediately the housemaid appeared in the arch- 
 way. 
 
 "This gentleman is leaving", Norton said crisply. 
 * * * * # 
 
 Just enough coal was glowing in the grate of the 
 fireplace in Margaret Hanlon's room to cast little string- 
 ers of reflection on the opposite wall and cause momen- 
 tary flickers on burnished mahogany. 
 
 Mary Norton was enjoying the comfort of a divan 
 of pillows she had constructed for herself on the furry 
 rug beside Margaret's chaise-lounge facing the fireplace, 
 her feet tucked under her, the tip of a blue Turkish 
 slipper peeping from beneath the edge of her blue silk 
 kimona. Her loosened hair hung, thick and wavy, about 
 her shoulders, framing her charming face with a fluffy 
 aureole in which deepest auburn tints were disclosed by 
 the fire-glow.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 105 
 
 As she sat there with such comfortable insouciance, 
 Mary had a certain piquant youthfulness that revealed 
 another phase of her beauty. 
 
 "It seems just like a story in a book" she was say- 
 ing "his coming here. You know, Margaret dear, one 
 of my pet illusions now and forever more is gone For 
 how can I ever again picture an anarchist as I always 
 have done now that my anarchist has come attired in a 
 neat blue suit that fits him, neat shoes, neat tie and with 
 his hair cut most becomingly?" 
 
 "And perhaps a bomb in his pocket", Margaret 
 teased, "which he forgets to hurl when overcome by the 
 fair princess he encounters so unexpectedly." 
 
 Mary smiled enigmatically. "I could imprison you 
 forever on bread and water for such an idea, Margaret 
 Hanlon!" she exclaimed. "Such a one comes not with a 
 bomb in his pocket, but with weighty platitudes in 
 mind!" 
 
 "Perhaps, my princess, perhaps", said Margaret, gaz- 
 ing at the coals with half-closed eyes. 
 
 "And the build of him and the strength!" remarked 
 Mary deliberately. "I would like to see him engaged in 
 the masterful feat of knocking down say two ruf- 
 fians." 
 
 "And why two, pray?" demanded Margaret. 
 
 "Oh, because I should imagine he could do it so com- 
 pletely", replied Mary Norton. And again she smiled 
 her enigmatic smile. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Bradshaw walked to his boarding house with many 
 thoughts racing through his mind. He again had come 
 face to face with the girl who so often had been in his 
 thoughts and she was Norton's sister, and Dan had 
 quarreled with the mine owner. So, if Mary Norton
 
 106 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 knew anything of him at all she, too, might think he was 
 a discordant Direct Actionist. Where had gone all his 
 plans for true leadership? 
 
 Dan laughted a short, bitter laugh. How unattain- 
 able this girl now seemed and how vain his dreams of 
 her! 
 
 Arrived at his room, he divested himself of hat and 
 coat and moving the room's plain wooden table to a 
 place of vantage beneath the single electric drop, Dan 
 took from the table's drawer some papers, ink, pen and 
 ruler, and pulling up a chair, endeavored to engage him- 
 self in the task of working out more details of his mine 
 cage safety clutch. But he could not bring the proper 
 concentration to bear on his work. Over and over again 
 he re-enacted in his mind his meeting with Norton's sis- 
 ter in the library of her home his scene with Norton. 
 He thought of his attempted defense of the League de- 
 spite his realization of the League's tendency. "I made 
 a melodramatic donkey of myself," he summed it all up. 
 And then he tried again to devote himself to his inven- 
 tion. But Dan was again interrupted. Someone 
 knocked at his door. It was Paddy Skiff, and it was 
 plain from Paddy Skiff's expression that he had news of 
 importance. He came in quickly and closed the door. 
 "Lad," Paddy said excitedly, "there's somethin' poppin' 
 fer sure. Don't disbelieve me. Vignon, Wilkins an' 
 Snitch, the murderin' bunch, has bin plottin' all ev'nin 
 I heard 'em up at Carty's. They've gone out in direc- 
 tion of Nortin's." 
 
 "Quick man tell me all", Dan commanded, grasping 
 Paddy by the shoulder. 
 
 "They was drinkin' some", Paddy went on hurriedly, 
 "an* they was sittin' back of the partition where the 
 wine-room used to be. I was sittin' next the other side
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 107 
 
 of the partition." Then he continued quickly to tell 
 Bradshaw of the plan he had overheard. "They may be 
 reckless", he finally concluded. 
 
 "I think it's all a big bluff", declared Bradshaw, 
 hastily putting on his hat and coat, "but I'm going out 
 there, too that's the way to save time. No use trying 
 to kick up an alarm now for if anything happens it'll be 
 all over before any general steps can be taken to stop it." 
 
 Dan rushed from the boarding house along Working 
 Lane to where the street cars passed and swung him- 
 self aboard one bound for the center of the city. Ar- 
 rived there, Dan jumped into a waiting taxicab and 
 urged defiance of the traffic laws. Half a block from the 
 Norton home he dismissed the taxi and walked quickly 
 towards the house which stood there, a solid refutation 
 of the fears that had been growing within him. He did 
 not turn in at the gateway, but walked past it for a few 
 yards. Then, glancing hastily in either direction along 
 the thoroughfare, Dan pulled himself to the top and let 
 himself down on the other side of the stone wall that 
 separated the Norton grounds from the pavement. He 
 was then amidst some trees which, almost denuded of 
 their midsummer verdure, afforded a very incomplete 
 screen. As he went forward, two sturdy figures moving 
 stealthily along in the shadow of the wall, carefully fol- 
 lowed him. In the shadow of a big tree and where a 
 box hedge ran along between Dan and the sweep of 
 lawn that ended in shrubbery, fringing the mansion's 
 abutting conservatory, the miner stopped. The two fig- 
 ures, still masked by the trees, did likewise. 
 
 Bradshaw contemplated the house. Lights were 
 burning on the first as well as on the upper floors. The 
 ornamental bronze veranda lamps that flanked the wide 
 oaken doors, were brightly aglow.
 
 108 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 There was a night stillness, punctuated now and then 
 by notes of activity that came from the heart of the city 
 and the Hill. 
 
 Bradshaw was trying to decide whether or not he had 
 acted foolishly in coming instead of telephoning to Nor- 
 ton, but he blamed his action, if wrong, on his natural 
 man-desire to be present and participate, if neeoT be, in 
 preventing what he feared might occur. He did not 
 want Norton harmed he would do his best to prevent 
 any sort of outrage for the sake of law and order, for 
 the sake of his own people's welfare, and overwhelm- 
 ingly, because here he would fight and die if need be for 
 the sake of Mary Norton Yes, that was it. That was 
 the great and paramount consideration to protect Nor- 
 ton's sister from any chance of harm. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 And at that moment, Vignon, Wilkins and Snitch 
 were seated at a table at Carty's. "There ain't no use 
 tryin' to pull any of that stuff," Vignon was admonish- 
 ing his companions, "out at a place like that jus' to start 
 somethin* an' throw a scare into a few of 'em 'roun' this 
 town. There's other ways." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 As Bradshaw was pondering his next step two pow- 
 erful figures came quickly up behind him and hurled 
 themselves on him so that he went headlong to the 
 ground. Followed a heart-breaking tussle, but a third 
 man came running across the lawn and the struggle was 
 brought to an end. Presently Bradshaw, with his hands 
 manacled behind his back, was being scrutinized by his 
 three captors in the light of an electric flash lamp. 
 
 "We'll take him over to the house and let Mr. Norton 
 have a look at him", announced the man with the light. 
 "Come along."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 109 
 
 Bradshaw, recovering from the daze of the brief but 
 fierce melee, knew it was useless to resist the order given 
 him. 
 
 A few minutes later, the miner once more faced 
 DeWitt Norton in the library from which he had de- 
 parted in anger but two hours before. Bradshaw caught 
 the glint of a revolver handle in the pocket of Norton's 
 bath-robe. 
 
 When Norton saw the prisoner, he started in sur- 
 prise. "You did all right, boys, but take off his hand- 
 cuffs and leave him here with me," Norton ordered, much 
 to the amazement of the three captors. 
 
 "But Mr." began the spokesman of the trio, who 
 had taken Bradshaw. The mine-owner was quick to in- 
 terrupt him. "It's all right, Chief just leave him with 
 me. I can take care of myself and I want to have a talk 
 with him." 
 
 "He may be armed", suggested the "Chief", as he re- 
 moved the handcuffs from the miner's wrists. 
 
 "I am not armed," Bradshaw said quickly. 
 
 "Go ahead, boys and many thanks", said Norton, 
 following the three captors as they reluctantly withdrew 
 to the front door. 
 
 Bradshaw was standing just where Norton had left 
 him when the mine owner returned. 
 
 "Well what is it, Bradshaw?" demanded Norton. 
 
 And Dan told him, quietly, briefly and, as he hoped, 
 convincingly while the mine owner listened intently. "I'll 
 accept what you say," Norton said finally. "I feel under 
 some obligation to you at least, to that extent. Don't 
 think I've forgotten your presence of mind in that 
 'gopher-hole' affair." 
 
 Unexpectedly Mary Norton appeared in the reception 
 hall archway of the library.
 
 110 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "What is it DeWitt?" she asked, coming quickly over 
 to her brother. "I heard scuffling and then a little later 
 the front door closing. So I decided to come down and 
 investigate for myself." As she spoke she looked in sur- 
 prise at the disheveled miner. 
 
 "Mr. Bradshaw and I are talking", Norton said 
 gently. "You run along upstairs. There is no excite- 
 ment whatever." 
 
 "Of course not being a child", Mary declared with 
 some asperity, "I can see there has been something un- 
 usual here. What is it?" And as she spoke, Bradshaw 
 noted the striking similarity of facial strength between 
 brother and sister. 
 
 "Merely this" Norton concisely sketched the cir- 
 cumstances of Bradshaw's return to the house, his cap- 
 ture and his presence in the library. "Mr. Bradshaw is 
 at liberty to go just as soon as I can tell the Chief", he 
 finished. 
 
 Mary laid a hand on Norton's arm. "Mr. Bradshaw", 
 she said, "once saved me from annoyance up on the mine 
 road." 
 
 "Apparently the Norton family is under considerable 
 obligation to you, Bradshaw", observed Norton dryly as 
 he stepped over to the library table and pressed a but- 
 ton. Almost at once a door opened and closed, and the 
 man designated as the "Chief" came into the room. 
 
 "This man", Norton said, indicating Bradshaw, "is 
 leaving now. See that he is not annoyed." 
 
 The "Chief" nodded, and withdrew. 
 
 "Concerning your expressed determination about em- 
 ployment", said Norton to Dan "that is optional with 
 you."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 111 
 
 So, a second time that night, Dan Bradshaw left the 
 house of DeWitt Norton in a very unsettled state of 
 mind. 
 
 After the miner had reached the thoroughfare, the 
 "Chief" returned to the library where Norton was await- 
 ing him. "He's well along on his way now, Mr. Norton", 
 he reported. "I'm sorry if we" 
 
 "You and your men acted very promptly", Norton 
 cut in. 
 
 "I'm glad our work suits you", said the other with a 
 smile. 
 
 "Do you know him?" asked Norton. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Then forget all about his having been here." 
 
 Mary was waiting at the" head of the stairs when her 
 brother came up. 
 
 "Well Mary", he said, "now our young man of the 
 hot-headed disposition has gone away with the notion 
 that we employ armed guards here at night just because 
 the watchmen we have when the house is closed came to 
 work a day sooner than usual. For the sake of my repu- 
 tation I was almost tempted to let him know the truth, 
 but I thought it would not be a bad idea for the impres- 
 tion to prevail that no outrages can be perpetrated here." 
 
 "You really do think he meant to perform a valuable 
 service, don't you?" she asked. 
 
 Norton rubbed his chin reflectively. "At his age", 
 he said slowly, "I too, had quite an appreciation of the 
 dramatic. If there is any benefit of a doubt we might 
 give it to him, I suppose." 
 
 Bradshaw went directly to Carty's. And as he 
 walked slowly along he contemplated himself bitterly. 
 What a fool he had made of himself ! What a ridiculous 
 figure he must have been to her the girl for whose
 
 112 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 sake, after all, he had been led into his mistake. No 
 doubt Norton did not believe his story of why he had 
 returned to the house. Perhaps even the girl suspected 
 that he had fabricated his account of a threatened out- 
 rage so that he could pose as a hero and thus try to win 
 the mine owner's favor. And the more Bradshaw pon- 
 dered on the latter theory, the more distorted became his 
 perspective. He swallowed several burning drinks of 
 whisky. Had not Norton tossed him immunity from 
 arrest as a bone might have been tossed to a dog? 
 
 So thought this man of temporarily illogical reason- 
 ing. He felt abashed, humiliated and resentful. And 
 what was it Norton had said about retaining his posi- 
 tion? Did not that merely mean that if he chose to re- 
 main at work in the Mont, Norton would tolerate him 
 there? Well he wouldn't stay in the Mont. He 
 wouldn't be treated that way. 
 
 And what it is that makes a man strong mentally 
 and physically for a brief period, lose entire grip on 
 himself when trying in stress of abnormal mental proc- 
 esses to return to a more rational and logical reasoning 
 by an illogical method, is something that is obscured in 
 the inner recesses of man-nature. That is to say that in 
 trying to steady himself that night, Dan Bradshaw for 
 the first and last time in his life, drank to fearful excess. 
 
 Through the mystic hours of the night shadows from 
 midnight to dawn when forces for good and evil some- 
 times seem to struggle for mastery, this now unseeing, 
 unheeding, reason-bereft man wandered pitifully 
 through the dark. Nor when day came did he report for 
 duty at the Mont, nor ever again thereafter did he work 
 there.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 113 
 
 For when daylight began to pencil a thin, grayish 
 line at the top of the Great Divide and a glimmering of 
 reason returned to Dan Bradshaw, he, disordered in ap- 
 pearance, in body and mind, stumbled to his room, threw 
 himself on his bed and sank into unconsciousness.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 DOLDRUMS 
 
 Bradshaw drifted aimlessly between Carty's saloon 
 and Klemner's shop. 
 
 At the shoemaker's Dan would sit with his head in 
 his hands. And while Millie was pleased that Brad- 
 shaw's visits no longer involved the tedium of grammar 
 lesson discussions, she wished he would act less like the 
 chief mourner at a funeral. However, several times Mil- 
 lie made tea for him and insisted on his drinking it. 
 
 Once, when idly regarding her over his tea cup, Dan 
 wondered if men who had been inspired by Mary Nor- 
 tons, ever came to be content with Millie Klemners. He 
 speculated on what manner of drag she might be to a 
 man who would and could work his way to great success 
 and then immediately he felt a keen disgust with him- 
 self. All he had done in the past week had been to se- 
 cure a rustling card from one of the mining companies. 
 When Millie took the empty cup from him, their fingers 
 touched, but Dan merely looked down and smiled to him- 
 self. Soon afterwards he left. 
 
 "She's a damn fine animal", he remarked to himself 
 outside the door. 
 
 At Carty's Dan met Paddy Skiff who evidently had 
 been waiting for him. Paddy conducted him to a corner 
 table and when they were seated, Paddy regarded Brad- 
 shaw intently.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 115 
 
 "Lad, what's the matter with ye?" he asked almost 
 softly. 
 
 Dan looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Do you 
 observe anything unusual in me, my inquiring friend?" 
 he questioned somewhat indolently. "If so, let us dis- 
 cuss it over a social 'alf-and-'alf." 
 
 Paddy tapped on the table. "Listen", he commanded, 
 "there's a dom sight more important business right now 
 fer ye than 'alf-and-'alves." 
 
 "Some more contemplated outrages?" asked Brad- 
 shaw drawlingly and smiled. 
 
 "Now don't get yer dander up, me boy", returned 
 Paddy. "Dan, ye must sand yer track fer yer slippin' 
 fast. There's need of ye if the League is to be saved an' 
 a lot of trouble to be prevented. The League's goin' to 
 infernal blazes like a shot." 
 
 "And with my compliments", declared Bradshaw. 
 Then he called the floor boy and ordered drinks for 
 Paddy and himself. 
 
 While there was no disposition on the part of the 
 League at its next meeting to give Bradshaw much credit 
 for having presented the case of Jackson and the four 
 others to Norton, yet the fact that Bradshaw had left 
 his place as shift boss in the Mont and gone to mucking 
 for another company checked much of the criticism that 
 otherwise might have been directed at him. 
 
 Dan did not tell of what had transpired between Nor- 
 ton and himself and the League understood that their 
 meeting had been a very quiet, formal affair. The mem- 
 bers also noted that when Bradshaw made his report it 
 was not with his quondam energetic, upstanding way. 
 Having made his report, Dan lapsed into moody silence. 
 The session over, Dan went to his room where he sat
 
 116 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 wearily on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands. 
 Soon Paddy Skiff came in with a letter from Walton. 
 
 "Vignon's gettin' fierce", he remarked, after Dan had 
 read his letter. "He's braggin' of how he's done fer you 
 in the League, an' he's makin' some raw cracks as to 
 startin' trouble or a strike or somethin'." 
 
 Something of his former alertness showed in Brad- 
 shaw's demeanor as he sat up straight. "He's doing that, 
 is he?" 
 
 Paddy's eyes sparkled at the other's renewed anima- 
 tion. "Sure", he declared, "there's somethin' brewin'." 
 
 And Paddy Skiff was right. Not only was there 
 something brewing, but that very night it bubbled over. 
 
 A group of figures stealing up under cover of dark- 
 ness to a mine gate brought a challenge from a watch- 
 man, who, without more ado, fired his revolver. A fusil- 
 lade came back at him and other guards came running 
 to the watchman's aid, whereupon the approaching group 
 broke and ran down the hill, leaving a wounded watch- 
 man, a gunny sack containing several sticks of dynamite, 
 some detonating caps and fuse. 
 
 The news spread quickly by word of mouth before 
 there could be a newspaper account of it, and naturally 
 rumor exaggerated its import. The entire affair not 
 only was abortive, but the very apparent hopelessness 
 of the success of any such attempt made it look sus- 
 piciously as though it had been planned with an ulterior 
 motive. 
 
 Paddy Skiff woke Bradshaw out of a sound sleep to 
 tell him about it. 
 
 "An' now let me say this" Paddy spoke emphat- 
 ically "I have the inner certainty that if Vignon an' his 
 gang kin cause the impression Oh dom it man", he 
 broke out, "Vignon wants yer scalp. Yer the stumblin'
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 117 
 
 block in his way. Why, only tonight I heard he's bin 
 spreadin' the dope that ye've bin a dangerous sore-head 
 ever since ye left the Mont, an' I was told that 'tis his 
 plan first to git ye in bad an' took out of the way an' 
 then make the League a real branch of the national 
 Direc' Action organization. Fer a week I bin tryin' to 
 make ye see reason an' make ye be the grand fightin' 
 man ye was before." 
 
 An expression of resolve showed on Bradshaw's face. 
 "We'll have the cards on the table at tomorrow night's 
 meeting of the League", he said tersely. "There ought 
 to be some more fight left in me." 
 
 "Lad, Lad, I could hug ye fer them words!" ex- 
 claimed Paddy, his eyes sparkling. 
 
 "Meantime", remarked Bradshaw, "I must be forti- 
 fied by the sleep of the just and the weary." 
 
 Paddy held up his hands in a gesture of patient res- 
 ignation and left Bradshaw to return to his slumbers.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 THE TEMPEST 
 
 "This is the idea, Paddy: no man with half an 
 ounce of decency is going to stand for outrages." 
 
 Bradshaw, pouring frequent libations of 'alf-and-'alf 
 on the altar of his devotion to decency, was speaking to 
 Paddy Skiff across their favorite table at Carty's. 
 
 "Those in the League, as it now stands", he went on, 
 "who want the sort of thing that was tried last night 
 when that watchman was shot, want to make a criminal 
 band out of an organization that ought to represent en- 
 tirely different purposes if it's going to exist at all. You 
 and I know from what we've heard today that many per- 
 sons suspect the League of harboring the perpetrators of 
 last night's outrage. We can't stand for it. My idea, 
 Paddy, is a reorganization of the League cutting out all 
 the Direct Actionists." 
 
 "Also ye best be cuttin' out some of the lubrication 
 yer after oilin' yer ideas with", said Paddy. 
 
 Bradshaw refused to grow angered at his friend. 
 "Positively Paddy, you're nothing but a croaker a 
 downright croaker", he said in what he meant to be a 
 bantering tone. Trust me to be at the League meeting 
 tonight and start something." 
 
 Paddy looked quizzically at him. "Startin' is yer 
 strong point these days, me Laddie but kin ye finish? 
 Aye, that's it kin any of us finish?" and Paddy heaved
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 119 
 
 a sigh as his thoughts reverted to the buxom and highly 
 independent Mrs. Inez Harrity. 
 
 Leaving Carty's, Bradshaw left the devoted swain at 
 the boarding house door and continued on to see if he 
 could meet Cronel at Klemner's, as the League's presi- 
 dent frequently could be found at the shop at that time 
 of day. 
 
 Much as Bradshaw had lost that clear and hard- 
 headed mental grasp of himself; much as he really was 
 being tortured in the fiery crucible of his own making, 
 he was angered and disgusted by what had come about 
 in League affairs. Dan was disillusioned as to its status. 
 He believed that his reorganization plan alone would 
 save the League. 
 
 While Millie Klemner waited patiently in the little 
 dining room, now and then darting a look through the 
 open doorway into the shop, Bradshaw was out- 
 lining his reorganization idea to Cronel and Klem- 
 ner. Dan argued that by this time the police author- 
 ities must be watching the League and League head- 
 quarters, and that a better declaration of principles was 
 imperative. He proposed not only to call together the 
 conservative members to effect the new organization and 
 the positive exclusion of Direct Actionists, but he de- 
 cided also to change its title. Still, there was a lack of 
 coherency in Dan's method of presenting his theories re- 
 garding the subject that detracted materially from the 
 force of his arguments. Even to himself, Bradshaw ad- 
 mitted that he certainly was not at his best in the ex- 
 planation of his new organization plans. 
 
 After an hour or more of argument Bradshaw left 
 the shoemaker's place. He was not at all pleased that 
 his plans had not been heartily acclaimed by Cronel and
 
 120 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Klemner. Their reason for not doing so, Klemner voiced 
 to Cronel after Dan had gone. 
 
 "He's got the right notion about getting rid of the 
 members who are against law and order," said Klemner, 
 "but Dan Bradshaw, as you can see, is not quite himself. 
 He's got the making of a forceful leader, but I'm afraid 
 that right now he can't hold the membership together. 
 If he starts something at the meeting it will be a hot 
 session." 
 
 Cronel agreed with the shoemaker. 
 
 In truth, there was a tenseness in evidence that pres- 
 aged coming excitement before Cronel called the League 
 meeting to order that night. There was a preponderance 
 of virulent Direct Actionists, very officious in their 
 claims as to what they proposed to do, and fewer than 
 ever of that element of which Bradshaw had been the 
 accredited head. Conservative members were absent for 
 a variety of reasons. Those of them who were married 
 and had acquired little homes, let wifely counsel stimu- 
 late their own inclination to stay away from the meet- 
 ing. Others feared the League was under a surveillance 
 that was becoming keener all the time, for the mining 
 companies, as well as the officers of the law were not un- 
 aware of the necessity of trying to reach the very foun- 
 tain-head of the abortive attempt to carry Direct Action 
 to either a very serious culmination or to encourage more 
 such actions which might be dangerous for employes and 
 destructive to property anywhere. Still others were 
 weary of the organization which, they decided, was lead- 
 ing nowhere as it became more and more apparent that 
 not even Bradshaw was able to control it. 
 
 Vignon sat where he could command a good view of 
 the members. He almost crouched forward like a tiger 
 awaiting the moment to spring on its prey.
 
 121 
 
 Bradshaw, with Paddy Skiff and Jackson, took their 
 seats in the center of the hall in the very midst of the 
 Direct Actionists from whom Dan wanted to wrest the 
 League. 
 
 Routine business dispensed with, Bradshaw pur- 
 posely permitted Vignon to begin proceedings with ad- 
 vocacy of the scheme to have the League become affili- 
 ated with the national Direct Actionist organization. 
 
 As when on a day in summer there appears within a 
 fleecy cloud-mass a black core that finally envelops it and 
 flash after flash of lightning whips out before the tempest 
 sweeps down until there seems a temporary overthrow 
 of Nature's stability a cosmic chaos so did this meet- 
 ing come rapidly to where darkest basic emotions envel- 
 oped it. The flashings of the then-engendered virulence 
 made a clashing, primitive, unreckoning chaos of order. 
 The pent-up menaces of feelings, of long fermenting 
 ideas, burst all restraining bonds. 
 
 Men voiced Direct Action that meant the worst of 
 destructive radicalism. 
 
 Cronel sought in vain to stem the swirling, foaming, 
 reckless maelstrom of Direct Actionist outpourings. He 
 pounded on his desk. 
 
 "Vignon, springing up, shook his fist in Cronel's face. 
 "Go an' rot you fool!" he shrieked. "Go to hell!" 
 
 Bradshaw, with blazing eyes, with head erect and 
 once more radiating that force of personality that pre- 
 viously had distinguished him in trying situations, 
 sprang on a chair and demanded attention. There came 
 a brief lull in the maddened, boiling confusion while all 
 eyes were turned inquiringly towards him. Quickly he 
 took advantage of his chance, commanding undivided at- 
 tention. He called on the members to retain their 
 reason. He flayed Direct Actionism's attempt to win the
 
 122 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 League's affiliation. And then it was to him as if the 
 meeting faded from his view and he was striving to 
 climb up a steep hill to Mary Norton, standing on its 
 summit. The way, it seemed, was over fearful, jagged 
 rocks and, if he meant to reach her he must toil, he must 
 overcome the menacing obstacles before he could win vic- 
 tory. The vision faded and he was pouring out burning 
 words to the men about him. He was fighting his fight 
 as if the girl of the vision were there smiling encourage- 
 ment at him and bidding him fight and triumph. 
 
 "No Direct Action" he told them "no radicalism, 
 no socialism that demands the immediate overturning of 
 social and all other conditions, can or ever will aid you, 
 make you men as men were meant to be. But the exer- 
 cising of your best manhood, the expression of your best 
 thoughts that really make for proper procedure, the acts 
 of men who are right, who are true, are your safeguards, 
 your best guides, your salvation in the economic strug- 
 gles all men must face. Good citizenship" he spoke as 
 though he might have been reading from a prepared 
 paper, so smooth and sure was the flow of his words 
 "Good citizenship means the performance of duty as it 
 should be performed. It means being American. It means 
 the upholding of law and order, of the preservation of 
 all those principles which make for progress and decency 
 and equity. If you destroy industry you destroy your- 
 selves. If you practice sabotage you take a big step 
 backwards towards savagery. When you have rights you 
 can demand them, but in the right way and at the oppor- 
 tune time. Destruction does not bring rights. Destruc- 
 tion of property, of industry cannot bring better eco- 
 nomic conditions. If you have political wrongs, then 
 most certainly the destruction of government could be 
 no cure for them. The ways and means of properly
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 123 
 
 eliminating such wrongs are provided. The proper 
 righting of any wrong is provided. You froth about 
 wanting to abolish the wage system and you offer noth- 
 ing but utmost confusion chaotic turmoil in its place. 
 I ask you to be part of a right-thinking and right-seek- 
 ing citizenry. Be not misled by damnable Direct Action- 
 ism! Be men! Not rending, destroying, reasonless 
 beasts!" 
 
 They listened to him with the sort of breathlessness 
 that they would have manifested had a wave of cold 
 water struck them unexpectedly. But as they began to 
 recover from the shock of his verbal attack, so, too, did 
 the tide turn against him. 
 
 Cronel sensed it. Jackson felt it. Paddy Skiff sus- 
 pected it. Bradshaw knew it. 
 
 But he talked on with a desperation born of the hope 
 that his eloquence, his reasoning and the fact that he 
 was right, might sway them, turn them, bring them to 
 him with new enthusiasm because of the light that 
 might pierce the obscurity of their mental confusion. 
 He had never been so much himself as he was right 
 then. He never had spoken so to them from his heart, 
 from his very soul. The power of the super-force which 
 actuated him was then communicated to them, and at one 
 psychological instant he might have won, and won glori- 
 ously. For crowd-psychology is a remarkable thing 
 its anger is gossamer and chrome steel it melts at a 
 fiery word, or resists a white-hot furnace, and as for the 
 heart of it it is kind and enthusiastic to the point of 
 effusiveness, while it is merciless as an Inquisition. 
 
 The very first hesitancy in Bradshaw's speaking 
 his first inadvertant groping for a powerful phrase, sen- 
 tence, word his first raising of his eyes from the crowd
 
 124 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 before him and his spell was as a cobweb to be brushed 
 fr'side with a single impatient gesture. 
 
 Vignon pushed his way towards Bradshaw and a 
 hundred tongues began to clamor. 
 
 Dan was interrupted. He lost his power to reclaim 
 attention and was literally swept off his chair. 
 
 There was a fierce, rough surging as when anger, un- 
 cv.rtainty and desire for a different sort of action make 
 a crowd churn about and express itself in an inarticulate, 
 positive, menacing rumble the Voice of the Mob. 
 
 A dozen hands elevated Vignon to the top of Crenel's 
 desk and supported him there while he, bending for- 
 vrard, poured out the vials of his hatred, when the 
 League ceased its movement and noise to listen to him. 
 
 Vignon spoke with the rough masterfulness of the 
 coarse, uncouth but forceful evil entity he was. He used 
 v fcrds that were cunningly naive. His sarcasm was the 
 more effective because it seared. His sophistry was the 
 more appealing to those there who wanted his talk be- 
 cause of the false strength of its appeal to their real 
 desires. 
 
 He abused them, scorned them, lashed them to fury. 
 He called them "slaves" and "groun' down dogs" and 
 "nawthin' but lumps a mud tuh be kicked 'round" done 
 with the well-calculated idea of bringing them to a high 
 pitch of anger, not against himself, of course, but 
 against those who, as Vignon insisted, were opposing 
 their theories and methods. For so to arouse them was 
 a vital part of the strategy of the sophistry with which 
 he was misleading them the more. And he climaxed his 
 tirade with an appeal for their support. 
 
 The frenzy of some of them was that of the camp- 
 meeting self -hypnosis so that a man so possessed jumped 
 on a chair and shouted;
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 125 
 
 "Le's go an' burn 'em all up." 
 
 Another urged that they parade and that struck most 
 of them with favor. To parade, to march through thor- 
 oughfares that was it the same spirit that impelled 
 the march of the frenzied populace in Paris in the 
 Reign of Terror the desire to move, to express a vio- 
 lent emotion by marching such as from time immemo- 
 rial has been one of the mob's chief expressions an 
 impulse to sweep on, shouting and threatening and 
 seemingly unaware of its locomotion, but driven on by a 
 turmoil of an inward seething purpose to proceed on- 
 ward, onward to no special destination. 
 
 Vignon sprang from his perch. 
 
 The members again were moving en masse. 
 
 Crunch, who had made his way to Bradshaw's side, 
 was jostled about in front of Vignon. One of the lat- 
 ter's coterie aimed a wide-swinging blow at Crunch 
 which would have been disastrous for him had it landed, 
 but Bradshaw quickly stepped in and, warding off the 
 blow, struck out straight from the shoulder and sent 
 the assailant reeling unconscious against Vignon. 
 
 Crunch spoke quickly and with carrying clearness to 
 Bradshaw. 
 
 "Another favor for which I owe you return", he said 
 sincerely, before he was swept aside in the rush at 
 Bradshaw that followed. 
 
 What the stalwart miner had not been able to ex- 
 press in forceful words, he exultantly did with the might 
 of his good, strong arms. He went into the combat with 
 a fierce joyousness, shooting out his fists with no lack 
 of skill, toppling over attackers as they came. But in 
 countering a blow which Vignon struck at him with one 
 of his huge, gnarled fists, Dan missed Vignon's jaw by 
 a hair-breadth.
 
 126 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Paddy Skiff, Jackson and even Cronel, unmindful of 
 whatever physical harm might threaten them, put forth 
 heroic efforts to get to Bradshaw's side for, indeed, Dan 
 was becoming a central point for the few who wanted to 
 stay the maddened crowd from leaving the hall for a 
 street demonstration that would be sure to result in a los- 
 ing clash with the authorities. It was no such motive, 
 however, that actuated Bradshaw. All his fighting in- 
 stinct, all his grievance against thick-headed and stupid 
 opposition, all his antagonism against insane Direct Ac- 
 tionism and anarchy, prompted him making of him a 
 dangerous fighting man, one who wanted only to hit and 
 punish those striving to down him. 
 
 Paddy Skiff and Jackson, too, were doing yeoman 
 service. 
 
 Cronel bumped against Vignon. The latter cursed 
 him and with a snarl crashed a blow against the social- 
 ist's face that deprived him of his senses. 
 
 With Bradshaw and three of his friends battling 
 desperately to protect them, Paddy Skiff and Jackson 
 dragged the form of Cronel to one side and propped him 
 up on a chair just as Cronel was opening his eyes. A 
 blood smear was across his left cheek and he was very 
 white but he was smiling. 
 
 Soon the melee became even more general. It was, 
 in truth, a disorganized mob fight, where many personal 
 enmities were fought out. It became a time for the set- 
 tling of old scores and the starting of new ones. 
 
 And, in that din of heaving, fighting men, there was 
 struck the death knell of the League. 
 
 From just outside the front doors suddenly came the 
 shrilling of a police whistle. 
 
 "Th' cops!" cried a voice.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 127 
 
 Hostilities ceased almost in an instant. Men began 
 rushing for the exits. Some plunged through windows. 
 The hall began to clear quickly. 
 
 Such is the inherent desire to escape arrest. 
 
 At the front and rear of the hall, hastening members 
 encountered policemen entering and sharp tilts ensued 
 because of Leaguers' efforts to get away. 
 
 A police patrol automobile came clanging up, and 
 then went clanging away. 
 
 How he got there, Bradshaw could not exactly tell, 
 but he found himself with Paddy Skiff and Jackson in the 
 shadow of a building near the one in which the hall was 
 located. The sounds of battle in front of League head- 
 quarters were rapidly diminishing. 
 
 Then the fighting ended and but a few policemen re- 
 mained in the neighborhood. The League hall looked as 
 if a very severe storm had swept through it. 
 
 Bradshaw, Paddy and Jackson took hasty counsel to- 
 gether. 
 
 "We had better separate and then meet up at 
 Carty's", was Dan's persistent suggestion, to which both 
 of the others finally agreed, although Paddy preferred 
 going to the boarding house. 
 
 Paddy and Jackson walked to the corner, where stood 
 the building that housed what was left of League head- 
 quarters, and there Paddy turned up towards Working 
 Lane while Jackson went on for another block before he, 
 too, turned northward. 
 
 Bradshaw went in the opposite direction. Then 
 through various side streets and avenues he worked his 
 way towards Carty's. 
 
 As Bradshaw entered Working Lane, three men also 
 bound for the saloon, saw the miner. The biggest and 
 burliest of the trio clutched his companions and drew
 
 128 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 them back into shadow for a moment before they cau- 
 tiously followed Bradshaw. 
 
 That Dan would have to cross a set of railroad tracks 
 and close beside a looming water tank before he could 
 reach Carty's evidently was known to the trio, for, with 
 the burly man in the lead, the three darted in between 
 two houses to an alley, hastened through it and emerged 
 in the very shadow of the water tank. 
 
 So when Bradshaw came there, a sharp blow on the 
 head from a billet stretched him unconscious on the 
 ground. 
 
 The burliest of the trio gave the prostrate form a 
 thudding kick on the side and involuntarily one of his 
 companions exclaimed "Oh Vignon!" as if in protest. 
 
 "Shut yer damn face", growled the man addressed. 
 * Here's our chance to railroad this guy an' do it right. 
 Come on now." 
 
 They picked up the unconscious form and carried it 
 quickly along beside the railroad track, safe from ob- 
 servance because of the shadows to which they kept. 
 
 A hundred feet away stood a string of empty steel 
 ore gondolas. At their farther end were two box cars. 
 The three halted with their burden at the first box car. 
 Then, while the other two half-supported the limp body 
 of Bradshaw, Vignon pushed open the car door. To 
 h^st Bradshaw into the car, drag him to one end of it, 
 then get out and push to the door was the work of a few 
 minutes. 
 
 After that, the three made their way back to Work- 
 ing Lane and walked up to Carty's saloon. 
 ***** 
 
 A switchman, swinging a globe of light from the 
 front board of a puffing switch engine, signaled the en- 
 gineer to back the locomotive down the tracks and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 129 
 
 around a curve that led to the water tank at Working 
 Lane. Obeying orders, the engineer slowed down his 
 engine's speed as it approached two box cars attached to 
 a string of empty steel ore gondolas. Then, when near 
 enough, the switchman jumped agilely from his place 
 and ran to make the coupling. 
 
 Buffer of switch engine met buffer of box car and, as 
 a clattering shiver ran through the string of cars, the 
 switchman deftly dropped the coupling-pin into proper 
 position and stepped back. He swung his lantern, and 
 two blurred notes came in answer from the engine's 
 whistle. Then, as the locomotive strained forward, the 
 switchman jumped nimbly to the hand-holds on the side 
 of the car and climbed to its roof. 
 
 The engine went puffing up the grade to the switch- 
 ing yards, the two box cars and empty ore gondolas 
 creaking dismally behind it. .
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 WILLIAMS 
 
 Vignon did not go to work next morning. He loitered 
 at Carty's, and presently Wilkins and Snitch gravitated 
 to that place. They found Vignon drinking at the bar 
 and without a word edged up beside him. Finally he 
 deigned to notice them, and swallowing at a gulp the 
 contents of the whiskey glass before him, he indicated 
 with a motion of his head that they were to follow him 
 to a corner table. When they were seated there, he 
 leaned over and spoke in a low but emphatic tone. 
 
 "We made one grand little mistake last night one 
 damn fool break. Railroadin' that bird Bradshaw may 
 not help our game none. What we should of done was 
 let him stay in town and play his string. He was gettin' 
 through fast anyhow and then with me showin' that he 
 was responsible for breakin' up the League say, he'd 
 bin a dead one here sure enough. Now s'posin' he picks 
 up and blows back here. Why he's liable to make a hero 
 out of himself tellin' how he was jumped on and half- 
 murdered all for the sake of the League. Bah!" 
 
 "Sure", assented Wilkins. "I fought of that too." 
 
 "Yeah, but you was too busy to say anything", 
 sneered Vignon. "Well, there ain't no use, my hearties, 
 howlin' over spilt beer. . . .all we can do now is help this 
 idea along that I got well started already 'bout his bein' 
 the real cause for the League bustin' an' how with him
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 131 
 
 out of the way it could go along better than ever." He 
 rose and pounded on the table. "Why, damn him any- 
 how! It was him that broke up the League just when I 
 got it goin' my way just when I could of done some 
 good with it him and his fool notions and his mush 
 talk against direc' action. The damn fool!" 
 
 Several others, who also regarded Vignon as the 
 right sort of leader, drew near to listen, their presence 
 spurring Vignon on to utter rabid radicalisms. 
 
 His little audience nodded approvingly when he 
 scored what he and his listeners considered good points. 
 And his barkening admirers never for a moment paused 
 to ponder on how unsound were his direct action advo- 
 cacies with all too much of this radical's own motives in 
 them; how ridiculous his plan with its illogical start, 
 course and destination. Like many another extreme rad- 
 ical, Vignon demanded changes of a most radical sort 
 and argued against established institutions, but had ab- 
 solutely nothing to offer in their places. Those who hung 
 so eagerly on his words, very evidently did not see that 
 he really was an advocate of disorganization and a cre- 
 ator of serious new problems that he was an impedi- 
 ment in the way of progress instead of anything like an 
 aid to it. 
 
 Vignon wound up his tirade with some more abuse 
 of Bradshaw, and Snitch remarked, "I wonder where 
 that guy Bradshaw's got to now." Whereupon Vignon's 
 glowering look plainly warned him to refrain from any 
 more comment of the kind. 
 
 But at that moment, Dan Bradshaw could not have 
 satisfied Snitch's curiosity had the latter been with him. 
 
 After having been thrown into the car, Dan re- 
 mained unconscious for several hours. Then he rallied 
 a bit and realized a forward and backward jolting the
 
 132 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 cars were being switched around in the yards. Follow- 
 ing that momentary glimmer of consciousness, he sank 
 into a deep stupor that lasted a long time. When finally 
 he regained his senses, he was puzzled and totally un- 
 aware of his location. He was stiff and sore and the top 
 of his head throbbed painfully. He carefully felt the top 
 of his head and knew that it had been badly bruised, but 
 there had been no bleeding. In the ensuing hour he 
 pieced together the events that had preceded the assault 
 on him in the shadow of the water tank and what likely 
 enough had happened after that. And a great rage 
 welled up in him. He clinched his hands and was for 
 going at once to search for Vignon to strangle him, 
 but there came a quick revulsion of his flaming anger, 
 for he felt very ill physically, and he grew desperately 
 sick in spirit. He closed his eyes and after a time drifted 
 off into a semi-doze which was disturbed by the shunt- 
 ing of the car. Next, the fact dawned on him that the 
 continuous roaring that had been in his ears had ceased 
 and that the jolting motion had ended. The cars had 
 been sidetracked and had stopped. 
 
 The door of Dan's car was pushed back and a big 
 brakeman entered, peering about. He discovered Brad- 
 shaw propped up in a corner. 
 
 "Well, well", exclaimed the brakeman, his hands on 
 his hips and bending forward to inspect Bradshaw, 
 "from the looks of the other cars I thought I wasn' to 
 find any passenger at all on this trip an' here you are. 
 Hey bum whatcha doin' in here?" 
 
 Bradshaw resented the greeting, but felt too weak to 
 argue the matter, so he merely answered wearily, "just 
 resting." 
 
 "You can't rest in here", and then the brakeman 
 spoke in slightly lower tone, "unless ", and he paused.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 133 
 
 Bradshaw pretended not to understand the more than 
 implied request for tribute. 
 
 "Where are we, brakie?" 
 
 "Too far from the pandhandlin' districts of Butte to 
 suit you, I guess", was the ungracious response. "We're 
 half way up the Red Flower valley and this string of 
 empties is sidetracked here for a few minutes. If you 
 want to go on to the end of the line you'll have to come 
 across." 
 
 Bradshaw studied his situation. He must have been 
 unconscious and in a semi-stupor for at least twelve 
 hours since leaving Butte and now he was on a branch 
 line running up one of the state's most famous valleys a 
 considerable distance from Butte. He had no money 
 with him. He resolved to get out on the chance of there 
 being a habitation nearby where he could procure some- 
 thing to eat, rather than try to prevail on the brakie for 
 a free ride farther along. 
 
 "Well, come on you goin' to sleep?" demanded the 
 brakeman impatiently. 
 
 "I guess this is where we part company", remarked 
 Bradshaw arising stiffly. He made his rather unsteady 
 way to the door and looked out and the brakeman drew 
 back a big foot and kicked Dan Bradshaw out into a dry 
 ditch beside the railroad's right of way. 
 
 Thereupon this humiliated man, forgetful entirely of 
 his one-time high hopes, thinking not at all of his man- 
 hood, turned where he had fallen and cursed the brake- 
 man with deep, bitter oaths cursed him with all the in- 
 tensity of bitterness of an unnerved, unmannerly being 
 who knew himself to be sinking into the very slime and 
 ooze of degradation. Even in the days when Bradshaw 
 had temporarily lost his grip on himself in his fight in 
 Butte, he still had been able to inspire some respect for
 
 134 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 his person. Antagonized as his motives might have been, 
 no one had then ventured to give him anything less than 
 honorable battle, respecting his prowess and his innate 
 manliness. 
 
 The brakeman did not even accord him that honor. 
 He merely laughed tauntingly and climbed to the roof of 
 the car. 
 
 Presently the sharp edge of Bradshaw's anger was 
 worn dull. Almost apathetically he picked himself up 
 and moved over to the nearby water-tank where he swal- 
 lowed great draughts of brackish water, and then, 
 sitting down slowly, he leaned against one of the 
 tank's supports to rest and perhaps summon up enough 
 determination to see a rift in the clouds settling down 
 over his soul. 
 
 Soon the string of box cars moved on their way and 
 he was the only human being in that vicinity. 
 
 It was late in the Fall, just after the pleasantness of 
 the Autumn and before the coming of winter. It was 
 that dull, drab, fortunately brief period that is like the 
 mournfulness of the half hour at the end of a winter 
 day and just before the coming of early evening, when 
 it seems as though Nature, herself, were pausing to 
 yawn. Even that locality, in summer so beautiful and in 
 winter at least picturesque, was forlorn looking to this 
 degraded man was unfriendly to the point of seeming 
 antagonism. 
 
 He got up and, slowly climbing the railroad fence, 
 crossed a field and walked towards a farm-house on the 
 other side of a well-defined roadway. It appeared a 
 properly kept place with its large, well-painted dwelling, 
 big barns and other evidences of farming prosperity 
 near it. When he reached a small grove near the house, 
 Bradshaw stopped and looked down at his clothes. His
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 135 
 
 suit was dusty and torn. He felt his chin and knew that 
 his stubble of whiskers did not add favorably to his ap- 
 pearance. And with a rush the realization came to him 
 that he looked like a hobo and that in attitude of mind he 
 was practically just that. The thought almost took his 
 breath away it was the one thing then that might have 
 permitted his submerging self-respect to assert itself, but 
 the feeling passed as quickly as it had come. He leaned 
 against a tree and contemplated the house. One idea 
 projected itself with peculiar vividness and persistency 
 on his mental screen. It was as though he thought it so 
 intensely that actually he was seeing the thought instead 
 of merely thinking it. And that strangely visualized 
 thought was that he had just about reached the bottom 
 that he was right down on the muddy, oozy, engulfing 
 loam of life's sea. That thought brought others of like 
 character. He had not made good. To get to the status 
 where he was hit on the head, thrown into a box car and 
 railroaded out of town and then kicked out into a 
 ditch verily, was a fine finish for a man with ambitions, 
 with dreams ! And now another thought why, he really 
 had been sinking into the depths all the time he had 
 thought he was rising to the surface ! 
 
 But it was the present that most concerned him. Two 
 courses, he felt, were open to him. He could go up to 
 the farm-house and beg a meal like any true bum, or he 
 could ask for work even if the only reward for it might 
 be a small hand-out of food. 
 
 And as he was weighing these two ways, a third, a 
 sinister, really shameful plan presented itself to him. 
 How easy it would be, if he got the lay of the place, to 
 get into the house at night and help himself to what he 
 wanted ! At that moment he was almost engulfed in the 
 slime of the very bottom. The fact that he could give
 
 136 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 even a few minutes to figuring out how he might get into 
 the house in such a way and for such purpose, was em- 
 phatic indication of where he was morally and mentally 
 just then. He had to make a quick decision, and nothing 
 was farther from his mind than to make excuses for him- 
 self. He craved food and rest. And he was glad of only 
 one thing that he was far away from Butte. He felt 
 like something hunted, as if he wanted to hide for all 
 time from those he had known and places that had 
 known him. Doubtless he would not have been much if 
 at all noticed in Butte, but he had the exaggerated no- 
 tion that all Butte was after him. He had been going 
 the pace too fast, and even long-enduring Nature was 
 rebelling. Then it puzzled him that, in such a moment, 
 recollection of his aunt and uncle, all unsuspecting of his 
 downfall, of Walton and others of Mary Norton 
 should come to him, but he could not think logically of 
 them either. They all seemed to blend into one mental 
 picture and somehow, someway, he felt more com- 
 forted, more sustained. Then and there he made his first 
 struggle to rise from the slime, and none too soon. 
 
 He walked over to the farm-house to beg for some- 
 thing to eat. He knocked at the door, and a woman, 
 middle-aged but with surprisingly trustful eyes of al- 
 most girlish clearness, opened it. But he did not beg for 
 food. He asked if he could split some wood for a meal. 
 She regarded him for the space of two brief moments 
 and told him to gather up a little kindling and bring it 
 in, when she would give him something to eat. So, a 
 few minutes later, he was occupying a hard kitchen chair 
 that seemed marvelously comfortable to him. As he 
 ate the generous meal she placed on the wide deal table, 
 to which he had drawn his chair at her invitation, a
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 137 
 
 heavy-set, bearded man entered and nodded to him in 
 not unfriendly greeting. 
 
 Fortified by the food, and a mite more hopeful, Brad- 
 shaw turned suddenly and spoke to the other man. 
 
 "Do you suppose a man might get work around 
 here?" 
 
 The other looked up from the straps he was arrang- 
 ing on a horse collar. 
 
 "Looking for work?" he countered. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Ever do farm work?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Well, there ain't much farm work this time of the 
 year, but I might use a man for chores. It ain't much of 
 a job, but it'll tide a man over. Tully's my name." 
 
 "Mine is 'Williams'," Bradshaw lied deliberately. 
 "I'll take the job." 
 
 So it was that Dan Bradshaw came to Tully's there 
 to serve as man of all work. It meant food and a snug 
 place in a room next to the hayloft to sleep in. It meant 
 plenty of work from early hours until nightfall. 
 
 After the first few weeks, Bradshaw was back in 
 proper physical condition again. He began to think 
 more of what had happened and yet he felt a mental las- 
 situde, an apathy, as to what his career in Butte had 
 been and what had come of it. He was as close as a man 
 like Bradshaw ever possibly could get to being more a 
 thing and less a man. 
 
 Finally the spell of winter broke. Came days of sun- 
 shine, a gradual disappearing of the snow, a reawakening 
 of the earth. One bright morning a vivid blue-bird 
 alighted on a fence near him and Bradshaw, pausing in 
 his work, looked up to see the newly ploughed earth, the
 
 138 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 thin haze veiling the mountains, the tint of the sky. 
 Spring had come. 
 
 Thereafter a new feeling was born in Bradshaw, a 
 stirring of new life such as the clod, that has remained 
 dormant all winter, must feel as the springtime warms it 
 to the heart. Not long thereafter he told Tully he had 
 decided to leave. 
 
 "Dissatisfied with your treatment?" asked the 
 farmer. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Just want a change", and he laughed. "Most of you 
 boys do when the spring comes." 
 
 "Oh, it's not that", Bradshaw said with more spirit 
 than he had suspected he retained. "I hear that men are 
 wanted over on the irrigation project across the valley 
 and the pay is good. I thought I'd like to tackle it." 
 
 "That speaks well for you, Williams it's the right 
 spirit", declared Tully. 
 
 That day Bradshaw drew what money was due him, 
 and en route to the irrigation project, stopped in the val- 
 ley's largest town and opened a bank account. He 
 bought a few articles of clothing and continued on to 
 where the main ditch of the irrigation project was being 
 dug. There he applied for a job. He felt far better 
 than he had for many weeks past. Ambition was rising 
 in him like the irrespressible sap in a sturdy tree. 
 
 He grew less taciturn as he labored in the ditch and 
 began taking more interest in his fellow ditch-diggers. 
 He even manifested interest when he heard of prospec- 
 tors bringing in good ore samples from the mountains to 
 the east and southeast, and his talk about mining was 
 intelligent. Those in the ditch crew, who obtained ore 
 specimens, brought them to him for his inspection. They 
 soon came to value his opinion.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 139 
 
 He scrupulously saved his money and otherwise mani- 
 fested steadiness as well as working ability that drew the 
 attention of the ditch foreman. Bradshaw was ad- 
 vanced to the position of gang boss. 
 
 And then, alluring, demanding, irresistible, came to 
 him the call of the mountains and his soul expanded in 
 the new light that flooded him.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS SUMMON 
 
 Summertime with its accompanying mellow warmth 
 was upon the valley. The delightful region was in its 
 full seasonal bloom. There was the ineffable thrill of 
 indulgent Nature at her summery best. There was 
 silent hum of action the noiseless, active energy of 
 growing things. 
 
 The widespreading fields of grain were adorned with 
 over-lapping shades of deep greens and warm, soft 
 browns that flowed into each other with rippling, slow 
 motion when touched by each gentle zephyr. And those 
 utilitarian fields of beauty swept in easy undulations 
 up to the bench-lands that, too, were covered with their 
 summer verdure and were as swelling bases for the 
 grandly towering ranges that hedged the noble valley. 
 
 The river, winding on a broad and gentle course, was 
 limpid blue flecked with silver. 
 
 Along and atop the bench-lands at the east ran the 
 long, twisting new-earth scar of a great irrigation pro- 
 ject, dotted at intervals with the little camps of the 
 ditch workers and the tent stables of heavy, amazingly 
 strong work horses. 
 
 From each of these little camps, pathways joined the 
 wide, well-kept highway that traversed the valley length- 
 wise and into which ran the various lanes and smaller 
 roads that afforded means of communication between
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 141 
 
 farm homes and hamlets and the more important town 
 to the south, which the encircling mountains seemed 
 finally to enfold. 
 
 Down the pathway that led in turning and gradual 
 descent from one of the ditch camps to the main high- 
 way, came a man with free, swinging stride, as one long 
 accustomed to hillside paths. His gray corduroy 
 trousers, supported by a leather-strap belt, and his blue 
 flannel shirt, open at the throat with the collar edges 
 turned in, disclosing his strong, bronzed neck, was not 
 without its picturesqueness. His shoes thick-soled and 
 serviceable, were of the kind the ditch diggers wore. 
 His broad, stiff -brimmed hat of cowboy style, was drawn 
 down in front to shade his eyes so that the upper part 
 of his face was in shadow, but his close-cropped beard 
 did not conceal the strong set of his jaw. Over one arm 
 he carried his corduroy coat, and under the other a small 
 bundle. 
 
 Pausing on the last foot-hill before he came to the 
 floor of the valley, he turned and looked back, his glance 
 sweeping up beyond the irrigation ditch to the moun- 
 tains shimmering under a blue-black haze, and then his 
 look became more intent as though, while studying the 
 ranges, he also was busy with thoughts other than of the 
 view, yet having much to do with what he saw. 
 
 Turning again and continuing down the pathway, he 
 came to the main road and along its grassy edge began 
 his walk towards the nearest of the valley's hamlets. 
 
 Presently into this rather well-traveled artery, there 
 ambled a pair of plump, indifferent horses drawing a 
 light spring-wagon and driven by the middle-aged owner 
 of one of the valley's thriving farms. When the farmer 
 arrived opposite the trudgfng man, he reined in his 
 team.
 
 142 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Coin' to Cross-roads?" asked the farmer. "Give 
 you a lift ef you are." 
 
 The other man stepped over to the wagon. 
 
 "Thanks", he said, and climbed to a place beside the 
 driver. 
 
 "Wall, it'll save you a leetle walk enyhow", remarked 
 the farmer and, jerking slightly on the reins, he made a 
 chirping lip-sound to which the horses responded with a 
 resumption of their ambling gait. 
 
 "Saves me a walk of three miles", agreed the passen- 
 ger with a smile. 
 
 "Bin workin' on the big ditch?" queried the farmer. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Thought so." 
 
 Several times during the interval of silence that fol- 
 lowed, the farmer glanced at the man beside him. 
 Finally he again asked a question. 
 
 "Didn' I see you over to Tully's durin' the winter en 
 early spring?" 
 
 "You might have seen me there", the other responded 
 affably. "I worked for Mr. Tully all last winter and part 
 of the spring." 
 
 "He's got a fine ranch", commented the farmer. 
 "He's a good man to work for too. Pays 'bout the bigges' 
 farm wages 'roun' here. Did you like workin' on the 
 big ditch better 'n farm work?" 
 
 "Can't say that either was easy, but it was the ques- 
 tion of pay that took me to the ditch." 
 
 "I guess the ditch comp'ny has had a hard time to git 
 all the men it wants", continued the farmer. "I guess 
 that's why it pays such good wages." 
 
 "I guess", agreed the other. 
 
 "I guess now thet some of the men have bin workin'
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 143 
 
 for a few months en have got money ahead, they'll be 
 hikin' for town." 
 
 "I guess." 
 
 "I guess you're glad to be goin' somewhere 'sides to 
 a ditch camp ev'ry night." 
 
 "I guess." 
 
 "Ever bin in Butte?" 
 
 The passenger glanced sharply from beneath his hat 
 brim at the farmer. 
 
 "Yes", he answered, and he saw the farmer was 
 guileless. 
 
 "My son was there a month ago", the farmer went 
 on. "He sez it's great street cars en ev'rything. I 
 guess they's most a hundred thousan' people or more 
 there." 
 
 "Good guess." 
 
 "He sez the mines look great. I calkalate on seein' 
 Butte en the mines some day. Ever seen 'em?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 The farmer regarded the other with more interest. 
 
 "Mebbe you kin tell me 'bout them copper mines", he 
 suggested. "They dig a hole en git the copper out 
 don't they?" 
 
 "That's right." 
 
 "When they git all the copper out of that hole do 
 they go over en dig 'nother hole en git the copper out 
 of that?" 
 
 "In a way yes." 
 
 "Wall, what I want to know is" the farmer faced 
 the other man directly "does the first hole fill up agin 
 some way with copper?" 
 
 Because of his down-pulled hat brim, much of the 
 passenger's facial expression was hidden. He merely 
 said, "Not exactly."
 
 144 
 
 The farmer devoted attention to his ambling horses, 
 threatening them with dire but unmeant catastrophe if 
 they did not keep to the road. 
 
 "Ef what I heard down at Jethro's store at Cross- 
 roads is right", he said to his passenger, "we'll have a 
 reg'lar Butte right up in them hills some day." With 
 his whip he pointed towards the ranges up beyond the 
 irrigation ditch. 
 
 The other directed a momentary but keen glance at 
 him before he spoke. 
 
 "Have they found any more ore up in those moun- 
 tains lately?" he asked. 
 
 "Say, how long since you bin down to Cross-roads?" 
 
 "About two weeks." 
 
 "Didn* you hear eny minin' talk 'roun* Jethro's ? 
 Didn' you see eny of the ore specimens that was brung 
 in by some of the prospectors whp come over the ranges 
 from the Big Hole Country?" 
 
 "Yes, I saw them", replied the other. "I just was 
 wondering if you had heard of any more such speci- 
 mens being brought in and from where." 
 
 "Nope ain't heard nothin' new of the kind", replied 
 the farmer. "I guess there's goin' to be lots of activity 
 over 'n them hills some day. They ain't so turrible far 
 from other good minin' places that's already bin f oun' en 
 that my son's told me 'bout. Yes sir I guess some great 
 mines might be foun' over 'n them ranges somewhere." 
 
 "I guess." 
 
 They came at last to Cross-roads where, at Jethro's, 
 the erstwhile passenger was host to the farmer to the 
 extent of several glasses of cider, after which he strolled 
 over to the box of ore specimens on a keg near the door 
 and casually picked up one or two of them. 
 
 The sound of a locomotive whistle caused him to re-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 145 
 
 place the ore in the box and step outside. The railroad 
 platform was only a few rods from the store and he was 
 there on the arrival of the branch train that was to take 
 him to the town of rapidly approaching city proportions 
 and mannerisms far to the south, where the ranges 
 seemed to enfold. 
 
 Arrived at his destination, Bradshaw went first to a 
 barber shop, and when he left it his appearance was 
 greatly improved. His hair was much shorter and his 
 beard trimmed in Vandyke style. He was indeed a stal- 
 wart figure with a light, easy carriage despite his broad 
 shoulders, for he disclosed a lithesomeness which the 
 coarseness of his attire could not conceal. 
 
 He went to a small bank on a corner and, at the tell- 
 er's window, presided over by the cashier, he asked as to 
 his account. 
 
 The cashier-teller quickly secured the information. 
 "Two hundred dollars to your credit, Mr. Williams." 
 
 The other took a slip of paper from his pocket. 
 
 "I have an Irrigation company order can I deposit 
 it?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh yes we'll save you the trouble of cashing it at 
 the company's office." 
 
 "It's only for a hundred dollars", said the other man, 
 and he made out a deposit slip. "I'm going away for a 
 while and may check out some from time to time." 
 
 "Send 'em along", returned the cashier-teller cor- 
 dially. 
 
 From the bank, Dan proceeded to a side street where 
 stood a livery-stable. Entering the "office", he spoke to 
 the proprietor. 
 
 "If you remember, I was here a couple of weeks ago", 
 he said, "looking at a burro you had." 
 
 "Yes, I remember", said the livery man. "We still
 
 146 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 have the critter. It's a good little animal, an' faithful, 
 too. Jus* the kind a man would want to take out in the 
 hills. Want to look at it?" 
 
 Fifteen minutes later, Dan gave the livery-stable 
 proprietor a check and then left his new four-footed ac- 
 quisition to await his promised return early the next 
 morning. 
 
 Four minutes after he had gone, the livery man pre- 
 sented the check at the bank and found it cashable. 
 
 Meantime, Dan betook himself to a general merchan- 
 dise store, where he made purchases of groceries and 
 clothes. He also bought several articles of hardware in- 
 cluding a "Dutch oven", a new rifle, an automatic re- 
 volver, a hammerless five-shooter, a fishing line, some 
 plain and fly-hooks, and then a pack-saddle outfit. All 
 his purchases he had conveyed to the livery-stable which 
 housed his burro. 
 
 Next he went to a stationer's store where he bought 
 several blank mine location notices, a fountain pen, a 
 tablet, envelopes and some stamps. From there his way 
 led to a restaurant, and subsequently to an accustomed 
 hostelry where he secured lodging. 
 
 He drew the room's small table over to a window to 
 get the benefit of the fast-fading light and wrote two 
 letters and filled out a check which he placed in one of 
 the missives bearing the address of his aunt and uncle 
 in California. 
 
 Returning from the postoffice, he asked the landlord 
 to rouse him at five o'clock next morning and went to 
 bed.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 THE SLIP ON THE DIKE 
 
 Misty vapor was still hovering over the river, light 
 haze was on mountain sides and over the far reaches of 
 the valley when, as the early sunbeams were flooding 
 over the tree-etched summits of the eastern ranges, Dan 
 stopped the impatient, laden little burro, beside which he 
 had been tramping up the first grades of the slopes that 
 finally grew to the towering mountains at the south-east, 
 and looked back over the valley from which he had come. 
 His costume was the same as on the preceding day, but 
 he had replaced his ditch-digging shoes with almost knee- 
 high mining boots, laced from instep to top. 
 
 Already the town from which he had made his start 
 was in the distance, and the atmosphere of the higher 
 mountains was beginning to manifest itself to him. 
 
 For only a few minutes he stood there, a hand rest- 
 ing on the pack of the burro, looking back at the valley. 
 Then he slapped the little animal jovially on the flank. 
 
 "Don Quixote, my friend, forward to the charge!" 
 he exclaimed. " 'Onward and upward' is our motto. If 
 I said it in Latin to you, it would be but Greek to thine 
 expressive ears!" 
 
 The burro looked around at him and raised his ears 
 as if in inquiry. 
 
 " 'Onward and upward', boy", commanded the man, 
 "and then in due time a luxurious meal of grass for you
 
 148 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 and a short-order dinner for me. Heigh-ho, boy, get 
 along!" 
 
 So onward and windingly upward they made their 
 way until the cool recesses of the mountain side encom- 
 passed them. 
 
 Long shadows, following close on the heels of day- 
 light, were slipping over the mountains when man and 
 burro attained the summit of the first range. And there 
 camp was made. The man busied himself near his 
 sprightly little camp fire with the preparations for his 
 evening meal, while nearby the burro, lightened of its 
 load, contentedly munched bunch-grass. And after the 
 man had partaken of his supper, he cleaned his cooking 
 utensils at a little spring, carefully extinguished his fire, 
 and filled his pipe. 
 
 The man looked at the mountain tops and the sunset 
 as one lost in his own dreaming. 
 
 Far down and away, the valley he had left was blur- 
 ring in a soft, eventide dusk. The river was all dull 
 silver now. Across, on the opposite side of the valley, 
 the range tops were outlined by the light of the setting 
 sun, the mountain slopes below them already beginning 
 to take on the deep purple hues of evening. The sunset 
 was one of western glory. As the sun sank lower, the 
 clouds over the far-side ranges became tinged with rosy 
 fire, deepening in tone as it spread from the cloud edges, 
 until the entire cloud mass was a glowing, seemingly 
 smoldering heap of crimson, gradually cooling into 
 mauve, with then the long, lower clouds like yellow-gold 
 fillets binding the brow of the Evening goddess. 
 
 Suddenly Bradshaw turned to regard the serrated 
 ranges beyond the one on which he was standing. They 
 were being covered by the velvet pall of night. In 
 among them, the little valleys, the gorges, the hollows
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 14$ 
 
 and canyons far below were in gloom, but the apparently 
 endless succession of peaks and ridges and jagged out- 
 line summits were still tipped with the glow of the set- 
 ting sun. With their rough, bold lines and smooth, 
 towering, snow-capped points they might, in that light, 
 have been the gigantic, leaping billows of a fearfully 
 angered sea suddenly metamorphosed into varicolored 
 stone. 
 
 The friendly burro walked over to the man's side and, 
 with ears forward, peered at the scene which Dan was 
 beholding as if in a way it, too, appreciated the magnifi- 
 cence of the view. 
 
 Dan put a hand on the animal's neck. 
 
 "Remarkable place, Don Quixote", he said, and the 
 burro waggled an ear. "Wonderful sight what? 
 There's some sort of quotation about, ' Alps on Alps 
 arise' I don't suppose you remember it. Well, it really 
 must have been some such sight as this that inspired it." 
 
 The burro threw back its head with a high motion 
 and saluted the world with a hearty bray. Then it 
 resumed its grass-munching. 
 
 With a laugh, the man proceeded to make his arrange- 
 ments for the night. 
 
 ***** 
 
 So, in the ensuing days, the man and the burro wan- 
 dered farther into the mountain country, living splen- 
 didly in the open peaceful at night beneath the myriad 
 stars that glorified the heavens. Once in a while there 
 came to them the tinkle of a cowbell from some far val- 
 ley, but they did not encounter humans. 
 
 If the burro was ever puzzled by the man's meander- 
 ings, philosophically it appeared not to take heed of 
 them. It seemed a matter of indifference to Don Quixote 
 whether the man insisted on their plodding up mountain
 
 150 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 sides, through forests, along cliff-walled canyons, on 
 range summits, across mountain table-lands, camping 
 wherever nightfall found them, or whether the man left 
 his faithful companion securely picketed and then scaled 
 rocky outcroppings, chipping off bits of rock here and 
 there with a stout geological hammer. Also Don Quix- 
 ote, though he liked companionship, nevertheless was 
 unconcerned as to whether the man devoted time to one- 
 sided talks with him after the day's wanderings were 
 over, or, maintaining tight-lipped silence, examined the 
 rock specimens which he had collected and carried along 
 in a bag slung from his shoulder, until the fading light 
 made such scrutiny impossible. 
 
 One evening the man took counsel with himself by 
 the method of expressing his thoughts aloud in the direc- 
 tion of Don Quixote, who now and again ceased munch- 
 ing the abundant mountain grass to raise his head a little 
 and look at the man as if to say : 
 
 "Go on, old chap, don't mind my eating as you talk. 
 I am getting all you are saying and, indeed, I quite agree 
 with you." 
 
 And the man was saying, "We'll give this locality 
 another whirl, my contented companion of the trail, and 
 then if there is nothing stirring we'll hit straight out for 
 another region I have in mind. Maybe we'd run into 
 something better there. And here's the proposition, 
 pure and simple if we can't find what we want there, 
 then don't look at me so appealingly, my friend, as if 
 fearing a dire ultimatum, for necessity makes me say 
 these words in all candor we, perforce, must part com- 
 pany and it will be me for the far, frosty north that is 
 to say, Alaska." 
 
 Don Quixote shook his head, presumably to discour-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 151 
 
 age the gnats, and then gave his entire attention to the 
 grass. 
 
 "Well, if it's all the same to you, I guess I'll turn in", 
 remarked Dan, knocking the ashes from his pipe. 
 
 The next morning they were up with the birds. The 
 morning air was wonderfully laden with the fragrant 
 breath of the pines, redolent of clean, grass-covered, 
 flower-adorned and tree-protected mountain slopes 
 gratifying, invigorating, stimulating. 
 
 Bradshaw reveled in this great out-of-doors life. It 
 contented the longing within him for a summertime out- 
 ing in the hills that longing that comes to every 
 mountain man, no matter what part of the mountainous 
 West is best known to him. Wherever he goes in his 
 own country or in foreign lands, wherever he might be 
 where are the memories of the departed glories of the 
 ancients, or in modern cities amid the glories of the 
 moderns the lure of the mountains which is really the 
 summons of the great West is strong for him in the 
 days of summer, so that, if possible, he hies himself 
 back to where he can see them, be among them, breathe 
 their air, be re-invigorated by them. To him they are 
 not mere scenery. He does not regard them as objects 
 of geological mischance to be viewed indifferently, per- 
 haps commented on and forgotten. But they live and 
 have a voice for him. They have moods. They frown 
 and they smile benignly. They have a sort of human- 
 ness that he understands. He knows them as symbols 
 of strength, of encouragement, and possessed of awe- 
 inspiring beauty. And knowing them so, they indeed 
 are a solace to his soul emphasizing the vastness of 
 life's big things and the littleness of life's foibles. 
 
 The western mountains great, rugged, picturesque, 
 magnificent thrill and encourage with their grandeur.
 
 152 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 They bring the men and the women, who know and 
 understand them, back to them from every corner of the 
 world to quiet jangled nerves, to revive jaded appetites 
 and restore lost illusions to put the soul once more in 
 harmony with the Infinite. 
 
 And this western man, who was searching for a 
 precious secret locked in the bosom of this mountain 
 land he, too, was under the spell of the mountains and 
 fain would have remained in them for the sake of the 
 joy of living they gave, but he had decided not to linger 
 among them if the search he was so diligently making 
 was unrewarded, for he had come to them this time with 
 another impelling motive that he hoped to make not only 
 resultant of a great new success, but also a vindication 
 of other aspirations. 
 
 The man and the burro gradually had been retracing 
 their course, though by a very different path, and they 
 were now no great distance from the town, though not 
 at all where they could see it. The next day, they came 
 to a narrow, natural trail that led around a somewhat 
 precipitous mountain side and up and over a ridge that 
 was as the frontier of a less explored region. Some- 
 times they were out in the open where the moun- 
 tain side was carpeted with brush and bunch-grass. Then 
 they would enter a thickly wooded swale with the trees 
 tall and solemn above them, with pine needles thick be- 
 neath their feet and lacy ferns interlacing in multitudi- 
 nous patterns. And often in the very midst of such 
 woodlands they would emerge into a treeless little park 
 that was nothing more than a natural clearing in the 
 woods, covered with a riot of wild-flowers and dappled 
 with the golden sunlight that filtered through the foliage 
 of the trees at its edge where there was a hush of 
 Nature, a beautiful intensity of peace, cathedral-like,
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 153 
 
 while the colors were as the refractions of wonderfully 
 tinted temple windows. 
 
 Leaving one of these park-like places, they came 
 almost abruptly on a rocky, ridge-like projection, as if a 
 rock-rib had been ruthlessly pushed through the grassy 
 covering. No foot of man seemed ever before to have 
 disturbed this mountain fastness. 
 
 They were picking their way carefully over this 
 rough outcropping when the man, stepping on what he 
 had thought to be a knobby projection, scarcely had 
 time to realize that it was a bit of loose stone before he 
 was thrown off his balance and would have experienced 
 a jarring, if not far more serious fall over the edge of 
 the dike, had it not been that he retained his grip on 
 Don Quixote's halter rope, while the wise and far more 
 sure-footed burro, looking quickly around at the clatter, 
 braced himself firmly and securely. Thus saved, the man 
 was able to get sufficient toe hold on the rocks to aid in 
 drawing himself up to the animal. But when he regained 
 a place of safety, Dan did something which might have 
 mystified the burro had the latter been capable of real- 
 izing mystery, for apparently intent on plunging himself 
 once more into danger, he got down flat and wormed his 
 way almost over the identical edge, down which he would 
 have fallen a few moments before, had it not been for 
 Don Quixote's sturdiness and the strength of the halter 
 rope. 
 
 Reaching downward, Dan chipped off several pieces 
 of rock from that part of the ledge which his recent 
 slipping had somewhat broken, and worked his way back 
 beside the burro. Each of the specimens he had secured, 
 he broke into smaller pieces in the palm of his hand with 
 his prospecting hammer so decomposed by mineraliza- 
 tion were they. Evidently satisfied by his scrutiny of
 
 154 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 the broken specimens, which he slowly turned over and 
 over, he dropped them, and taking the halter rein, led 
 Don Quixote to safe ground at the end of the dike where 
 he picketed the burro and removed its load. Don Quix- 
 ote watched him with speculative eye as Dan took a 
 measuring tape from his supply kit and began pacing off 
 certain distances around the outcropping until he dis^ 
 appeared from sight of the burro among the trees. 
 After an interval, Bradshaw returned and replaced the 
 tape in the kit. He then chopped down a small tree, 
 removed its branches and caused it to stand upright near 
 the dike by planting it in the ground and piling rocks 
 around its base. Next he emptied one of his small supply 
 boxes and fastened it at the top of the pole he had 
 erected so that the box would form a little shelter for 
 whatever he might place in it. Seemingly pleased with 
 the preparations he thus far had made, he took a blank 
 mine location notice from its place in the pack and with 
 his fountain pen proceeded to fill it in. That done, he 
 fastened the location notice in the little shelter he had 
 arranged on the pole. He next brought a pick and shovel 
 from his outfit and marked off a rectangular space on 
 the ground where he was to excavate sufficiently for 
 location purposes. 
 
 Don Quixote came nosing inquisitively up to Dan, and 
 the latter jovially slapped the burro on the neck. 
 
 "Old Sport!" he exclaimed "I hope you don't mind 
 my calling you that it looks as ff we might be in on 
 something good !" 
 
 A few days later, Dan entered the office of the clerk 
 and recorder in the town from which he had started and 
 duly complied with all the legal requirements for record- 
 ing the location of the "M. N." quartz lode claim. And 
 while Don Quixote ate his fill of oats and hay in the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 155 
 
 livery stable, Dan took several ore specimens to an as- 
 sayer. 
 
 Early the next morning, Bradshaw called for the 
 assay returns and then went to the bank where he had 
 deposited his money, but as it was not yet open he pro- 
 ceeded to the livery stable where he engaged the propri- 
 etor in conversation anent the hauling of ore, the fixing 
 of mountain roads and other such matters. Later, when 
 the bank had opened, Dan returned and had a lengthy 
 talk with the bank's president, an alert and enterprising 
 man. 
 
 In the afternoon, Bradshaw made his way via rented 
 automobile to one of the irrigation project camps, where 
 he engaged the services of two ditch diggers who were 
 ready to leave their work for something of a different 
 and more promising character. 
 
 There is a romance in the business of mining that no 
 words can express. The mining game is the cleanest, 
 most diverting and most fascinating gamble that the 
 laws of Chance ever have devised for mankind. It is 
 indeed a creator of industry. It greatly aids humanity's 
 progress without in the slightest depriving humanity of 
 what it already possesses. It may mean the attainment 
 of ambition's most vivid hopes, or it may condemn to 
 unrequited longings. The history of any important min- 
 ing discovery is a story not only of romance, but of 
 daring, of adventure, of devotion to duty and of unre- 
 mitting faith. 
 
 All such factors contributed to the unfolding history 
 of the "M. N." mine and the continuing disclosure of its 
 remarkably rich veins. 
 
 Before the snows of the winter following its discov- 
 ery had come to blanket the mountain region with white, 
 there was a very practical hoisting plant, consisting
 
 156 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 chiefly of a wooden gallows frame and a wooden engine 
 house protecting an energetic gasoline hoist, also a busy 
 little stamp-mill and a small huddle of miners' and mill- 
 men's cabins on the hill slope just above the dike where, 
 one summer afternoon, a man had slipped and fallen and 
 saved himself by clinging to the halter rope of a steady 
 and sturdy little burro. 
 
 The product of the stamp-mill was adding to the 
 growing bank reserve of D. Williams, enabling him to 
 begin the rapid repayment, with interest, of the loan 
 he had received from the banker who had manifested 
 proper faith in the "M. N.". 
 
 One day in the late Fall of the year in which he had 
 located the "M. N.", Bradshaw mounted his horse and 
 rode to town where he made sundry purchases of clothes 
 in which he lost no time in arraying himself. That 
 evening he was a passenger for a city sixty miles away 
 the nearest on the main line of the railroad. The fol- 
 lowing morning, this tanned, bearded and vigorous-look- 
 ing man, neat in his new blue suit and soft, gray shirt 
 with loosely knotted tie, with new shoes of a style and 
 quality that indulged his liking for good foot-wear, and 
 with his new stiff-brimmed cowboy hat pulled down over 
 Jiis eyes, took his place in the observation car of a famous 
 "through" train that was to take him to the destination 
 printed on his ticket Butte.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 THE RETURN 
 
 John Walton, adding to his editorial repute with a 
 successful novel, was pursuing a busy career of news- 
 paper work and book-writing, with gratifying success. 
 He had few intimate friendships, and those were of the 
 understanding kind. 
 
 On the evening of the day on which Bradshaw had 
 boarded the "through" train for Butte, Walton was a 
 visitor at the Norton home. There he encountered Ger- 
 ald Tharny, suave and preserving his veneer of smiling 
 friendliness. 
 
 Tharny maintained a rather elaborate mining office 
 in Butte. For the past year he had been the Montana 
 representative of a big Spokane mining syndicate. He 
 enjoyed a certain popularity in business circles and was 
 accounted a good "filler-in" a? parties and dinners. He 
 was of medium height, not bulky, nor yet thin, and car- 
 ried himself erect. His features were regular, his eyes 
 a bit too narrow, his hair brushed back with satiny pre- 
 cision, and he had a small, neat mustache. He had a 
 fund of ready talk of athletic events, of travel and the 
 like. With pretended modesty he never failed to seek 
 plenty of self-advertising: 
 
 Tharny never overlooked an opportunity to impress 
 Mary Norton favorably. His always well-groomed ap- 
 pearance, his careful thoughtfulness regarding her in all
 
 158 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 those little matters which a woman so readily notices, 
 and his seeming devotion to her, indeed had won the very 
 friendly consideration of this unspoiled girl. 
 
 Walton did not like him. Trained by his profession 
 in the ability to make quick and keen analysis of men 
 and women, the newspaperman in mind had classified 
 Tharny as "a first class four-flusher", a snob at heart 
 and a sharper in disposition. 
 
 In the course of the evening's conversation, the talk 
 had come to a consideration of the then harmonious con- 
 ditions in the mining city. 
 
 "I never have seen times so good here as right now", 
 Norton was saying. "There has come a period in the 
 swing around the circle of Butte's affairs, as I think of it, 
 when all is peace, harmony and progress." 
 
 "We have been rather free from agitators", remarked 
 Tharny. 
 
 "Doubtless that accounts for our peaceful status 
 right now", returned Norton. "I think that self-ap- 
 pointed reformers and radicalists of the anarchistic and 
 ultra-socialistic type frequently are led by their biased 
 views of what should be done into pernicious radicalisms 
 merely in order to try to gain their own ends. There is 
 all too often an utter lack of sincerity because of there 
 being so much of the personal entity In their actions and 
 hopes." 
 
 "There is great truth in that", declared Walton. 
 "The professional reformer, encouraged by success in one 
 direction, plunges in to attempt the immediate rectifica- 
 tion of what he considers abuses in other things, and is 
 apt to become the exponent of an intolerance that is not 
 only the expression of merely captious ideas, but a hin- 
 drance to really worthy endeavors. The red-anarchist 
 thinks red, sees red and acts that way. He wants de-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 159 
 
 struction of government, of any and everything that has 
 semblance of organization except his own. After all, he 
 wants nothing other than very special privileges for him- 
 self. And the socialist may be prone to going off on the 
 tangent of socialistic standard. He often injects the 
 personal entity to a very marked degree. He wants all 
 temperaments, all human ideas and methods subjugated 
 to the rule-of-thumb principles he lays down." 
 
 "It does seem", said Mary Norton slowly, "as if 
 there can be such surfeit even of good conditions, of 
 progress and perhaps happiness that the contraries must 
 arise to accentuate, as it were, the goodness or joy of 
 the blessings just as storm accentuates sunshine, and 
 darkness emphasizes the light, and evil impresses the 
 world with the value of goodness." 
 
 "Splendid!" exclaimed Tharny. "A mighty well ex- 
 pressed idea!" 
 
 DeWitt Norton laughed and looked fondly at his 
 charming sister. 
 
 "Quite as good as a novelist might have said it eh, 
 Walton?" 
 
 "Many times better than most of them", Tharny has- 
 tened to add. 
 
 "You two are teasing me now", said Mary with a 
 slight pout, but her eyes seemed to smile. "Mr. Walton, 
 you say in your book " 
 
 But the writer interrupted with mock entreaty. 
 
 "Please, Miss Mary please do not compel us to en- 
 dure anything of what I have perpetrated. You can only 
 hold me to account for what I may do in future. You 
 cannot make your punishments retroactive if I show a 
 repentant spirit now." 
 
 The girl shook her head at him. 
 
 "I wasn't going to hold you to account only going
 
 160 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 to substantiate myself. As I have told you before, I like 
 your book very much. Margaret and I used to talk of 
 it when we were in New York during the winter, and 
 you were down in California writing it. We wondered 
 how it was coming along and Margaret was greatly in- 
 terested. She even wrote to me from Palm Beach asking 
 if I knew anything more of it." 
 
 Walton smiled. 
 
 "Miss Hanlon was most gracious in what she wrote 
 to me about it after it was published", he confessed. 
 
 "I think I'll have to write a book", remarked Tharny. 
 
 Mary favored him with a smile. 
 
 "Do, Mr. Tharny, and win fame", she said. 
 
 "It wouldn't be for that reason", he declared, "but to 
 try to win the approval of such charming critics as your- 
 self and Miss Hanlon." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 When Walton arrived at his newspaper building later 
 that night he stopped for a few minutes in the busy 
 news-room to inquire as to various happenings of the 
 day and to glance over some of the Associated Press 
 duplicates in the telegraph editor's office. As he was 
 about to pass on to the city editor's coop, the office boy, 
 who had just entered, informed him that a visitor, who 
 claimed close acquaintanceship, was awaiting him. 
 Then, as he stepped into his own snug office, Walton saw 
 a well built man seated near the desk. The visitor stood 
 up as Walton placed his hat on its hanger near the door 
 and then strode towards the man who awaited him. 
 
 The visitor smiled and held out his hand. 
 
 "Not Dan not Dan Bradshaw?" Walton demanded, 
 accepting the proffered hand and looking keenly at the 
 other. "Why, of course it is! Why Dan you sight for 
 weary eyes and aching heart !"
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 161 
 
 "Are you really glad to see me, John?" 
 
 "I ought to order you out for that question you 
 pirate you!" declared the newspaperman again tighten- 
 ing the clasp of his hand, and the look he gave his friend 
 was enough answer to the question. 
 
 Walton pushed Bradshaw back into his chair and, 
 seating himself at his desk, regarded the other intently. 
 
 "You surely are looking fit, Dan, and it takes a close 
 friend's sharp eye, in fact, some one who knew you most 
 intimately to penetrate your disguise." 
 
 Then he would not let Bradshaw say more than a few 
 words to him for, as he explained, they were subject to 
 interruption where they were. He would take his visitor 
 to lunch and then to his apartment for a real, heart to 
 heart talk. 
 
 But before they arrived at Walton's rooms, the news- 
 paperman had first told Bradshaw of how he had received 
 a letter from Dan, telling of the latter's intention to go 
 up into the mountains, how Walton had concurred in 
 Dan's desiring to be known as D. Williams until such 
 time as he had rehabilitated his condition, how he had 
 sent for Paddy Skiff and given him the information Dan 
 had sent to the faithful Paddy, via Dan's letter to Wal- 
 ton, how the newspaperman had been on the verge of 
 going to seek Dan, having had an inkling as to where 
 Dan might be after getting the letter from him. "But 
 my faith in you restrained me", Walton said. "I did not 
 want to intrude on you at a time when you were work- 
 ing out your own salvation. I took your word as you 
 gave it to me in your letter that you would return some 
 day, and when that day came it would be one of joyful 
 reunion for us both. And so it is. I am going to tell 
 you again that you look great, Dan, You look like a man
 
 162 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 who really has found himself and, by Jove, I'm happier 
 than I've been in years." 
 
 Then Walton had given Dan other information 
 how, on returning from California, naturally worried at 
 not having received answers to his last two letters to 
 Dan, he had located Paddy Skiff, and Paddy had told 
 him that Bradshaw had left Butte, hinting that the 
 breaking up of the League might have made him consider 
 things too unpleasant in Butte for him and thus have 
 caused him to get away for a time ; how Paddy, presently, 
 had admitted that he did not know exactly when Dan had 
 gone or where, but that he felt Dan was safe and sound 
 and would turn up again, saying, "Sure, an' the boy 
 could well have takin' me into his confidence as to his 
 goin', but thin he must have had a rayson fer so doin' 
 an' I'll not kick but jus' wait fer his commin' back." 
 How even then the newspaperman and Paddy had admit- 
 ted to each other their uneasiness about Dan, and had 
 considered the advisability of getting police aid in an 
 effort to locate him, but then had come to the conclusion 
 that if he had gone into retirement somewhere for a 
 time, such action on their part might embarrass and per- 
 haps injure him. How they even considered the chance 
 of Dan having met with foul-play which made them the 
 more anxious to get trace of him, though they tried to 
 convince themselves that if such were the case, he was 
 beyond their help and that the true facts would come out 
 sooner or later. How, nevertheless, the newspaperman, 
 still troubled, slipped over to police headquarters to ask 
 his friend, McConnor the chief of detectives, to do a 
 little secret scouting and how, on leaving the detective's 
 office, the newspaperman had met Paddy who also had 
 been bent on seeing McConnor. McConnor had definitely 
 rounded up the information that two men had seen Dan
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 163 
 
 climb aboard a box car sidetracked at the water tank 
 near the head of Working Lane and that a few minutes 
 later the car had been switched away from there. So 
 then, Walton and Paddy had rested more at ease as to 
 Dan's safety. From time to time Paddy would come to 
 Walton to see if word had been received from Bradshaw. 
 
 "When I got your letter and let him know", Walton 
 went on, "we were about as happy as any two persons 
 in Butte. But here's some real news", and Walton 
 paused a moment while Bradshaw looked at him expec- 
 tantly. "Because of your not being able to be present, 
 Paddy and his bride-elect dispensed with the church 
 ceremony they otherwise would have had, and he and the 
 charming Mrs. Inez Harrity and myself went to the 
 priest's house one evening where Mrs. I. H. became Mrs. 
 Paddy Skiff." 
 
 Whereupon Bradshaw slapped the table in surprise. 
 "Well, well," he exclaimed, "and so the determined 
 Paddy Skiff is married at last ! Good enough ! Of course 
 I'll see him before I leave." 
 
 Walton gave Dan one more bit of news before they 
 reached the newspaperman's apartments, and it also 
 concerned Paddy. 
 
 "He enjoys his connubial bliss as a real householder 
 and does not work in a mine now, but keeps the books 
 and does some of the bossing at the Hotel Skiff, for- 
 merly the well-known boarding house of Mrs. Inez Har- 
 rity." 
 
 When they entered Walton's cheerful library, the 
 miner surveyed the familiar room from the threshold. 
 
 "Great !" he exclaimed. "The same old place. Looks 
 just as good to me as ever. No, a thousand times better 
 than ever before." 
 
 "These rooms are about as homelike as rooms can be",
 
 164 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 agreed Walton. "And come to think of it, young man, I 
 believe I've kept these rooms as much because of you as 
 for any reason of my own." 
 
 "My thanks for that", declared Bradshaw, "and my 
 thanks also for still considering me a young man despite 
 my very mature beard. You see", he went on jocundly, 
 "I am indeed a real man." 
 
 There was, in truth, a thorough manliness about the 
 miner that was a fulfillment of an earlier promise. 
 There was greater reserve and sureness ; stronger poise, 
 calmer strength. Not only had Bradshaw come to his 
 prime physically, the newspaperman noted, but he gave 
 evidence of a broadened mental scope, a sounder judg- 
 ment and, certainly, a self-reliance that was most grati- 
 fying. To Walton he was the same friend, essentially 
 the same man as before, only more ripened. But to one 
 who had not studied him so closely, known him so well 
 and judged him so rightly in other days, he might now 
 have been an entire stranger in mannerisms as well as 
 looks. 
 
 Bradshaw quickly demanded Walton's book and, 
 when his friend handed him a copy, the miner grew en- 
 thusiastic about its publisher, its makeup and promise of 
 interest. 
 
 "You can't read it now", declared the writer taking 
 the book from Dan and tossing it on the library table. 
 "That is your copy to take with you and read at your 
 leisure, but tonight you belong to me personally and 
 though we've waited until we got up here for your story, 
 I am becoming mighty impatient for it." 
 
 Comfortably ensconced in big, easy chairs, the soft- 
 ened glow of the library lamp the room's only illumina- 
 tion, their pipes lighted and thick smoke wreaths curling 
 above their heads, they were ready.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 165 
 
 "I was in California at the time you left, you know", 
 remarked Walton. "Now tell me why, when and how you 
 departed from Butte." 
 
 The miner looked calmly at the newspaperman and 
 his face was inscrutable. 
 
 "Shanghaied!" he said briefly. 
 
 Then he told his story. 
 
 After the little pause that followed the recital, Wal- 
 ton said: 
 
 "Have you still the same ideas of social economy, 
 Dan?" 
 
 "Don't tell me, after I get through, that more or less 
 personal success is a big factor in changing a man's 
 humanitarian views", answered Bradshaw with a laugh. 
 "That is not a fixed rule I can cite you dozens of in- 
 stances to the contrary. If my ideas have undergone a 
 change, it is not the result of whatever success I may be 
 achieving, but because I have had a chance to get some 
 real introspection and retrospection at a safe distance. 
 I still think that evolution will continue to bring bene- 
 ficial changes just as it always has. But it must be a 
 logical evolution that finds man entirely ready, by reason 
 of other progress, for each new feature of it as it comes. 
 Those who are continually hoping for the evolving of 
 new ideas and methods, also must get themselves more 
 in tune, and experience a lot of personal evolution to a 
 safer and saner view of many of the things they advo- 
 cate. When the purpose of evolution is suddenly carried 
 into effect with the speed which many of the evolu- 
 tionists, we might call them, desire, it is apt to be a 
 dangerous radicalism, and the shock of it on unprepared 
 and chiefly on unreasoning and unreasonable minds is 
 too much it is apt to mean disorganization rather than 
 equitable progress. If all the people of an autocratic
 
 166 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 monarchy, for instance, or the vast majority of them are 
 ready to cast off their yoke of oppressive government 
 and institute a far more liberal one, then the venture 
 may be a success, though many unrestrained acts some- 
 times attend such movements until the sentiment of the 
 people crystallizes. When just a small coterie brings 
 about such overthrow, a virulent chaos and unreasoning 
 orgy of law defiance may result, because that is a sudden 
 radicalism for which the people are unprepared and the 
 shock of it is too much for them." 
 
 . "But your leadership your people what of them?" 
 asked the newspaperman. 
 
 Bradshaw shrugged his shoulders. 
 "I was sincere", he said. "Please don't think me ego- 
 tistical in what I am going to say, but imagine we are 
 speaking of some third person. That kind of leadership 
 possibly might have helped them, because even if it did 
 have, perhaps, too much of the personal equation in it, 
 it was the kind that would not have left them in the 
 lurch or brought them up against antagonisms which 
 they could not hope to overcome. And it meant to have 
 an educational value in it. It would have tried to show 
 each and every one of them the reason for ambition and 
 progress. I thought they were seeing it that way but 
 they weren't." 
 
 "And so it failed." 
 
 "Yes. They wanted at one fell swoop what they were 
 not content to get by due process of learning and en- 
 deavor to obtain in a way that would be for the real 
 betterment of all concerned. Direct Action sophistry ap- 
 pealed to them because they thought it would bring 
 immediately what they wanted and so, of course, they 
 did not see that Direct Actionism, all that it urges and 
 means, would be the destruction of their chance for
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 167 
 
 proper industry. They could not see that progress is 
 dependent on being constructive and not destructive. 
 They wanted actually to put into practice only the prop- 
 osition of might being right, the very fault which they 
 were so ready to ascribe to others and bitterly berate." 
 
 Bradshaw paused to light his pipe. 
 
 "Why, John, that last meeting of the League was an 
 eye-opener, I can tell you. The conventions and the 
 notions of evolution and all the smug preachings of doc- 
 trinaires were stripped clear away. It was a return to 
 the primitive the primogenial tribe battling for a 
 carcass." 
 
 "And now what do you propose to do since you are 
 becoming more and more the employer?" asked Walton 
 smilingly. 
 
 "Put my ideas of equitable leadership into equitable 
 employing", replied the miner. "I'm not going to turn 
 my property over to any semi-political, semi-theoristic 
 organization such as the socialistic fraternity to run. 
 Why, even if any advocate of the socialistic doctrine 
 should prove thoroughly capable of conducting a social- 
 istic industrial enterprise, as I so often have heard ultra- 
 socialist advocates outline it, he would have to be 
 thoroughly managerial even to the extent of exercising 
 strict discipline and the like, in order to make it a success 
 for the benefit of the rest and so turmoil would be cre- 
 ated in the ranks and the usual jealousies and all that. 
 And he would be cast headlong from the organization, 
 whereupon the industry could go its uninterrupted way 
 to smash. I think, John, that the great trouble with 
 most of those ultra-socialistic 'soap-boxers' is that they 
 have not thought of applying their own theory and 
 process of evolution to themselves before tackling any- 
 thing else. As for the anarchists well, why speak of a
 
 168 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 proposition that is merely a wish for a wildness 
 prompted by a desire to carry into effect every notion, 
 no matter how erratic, that pops into a disgruntled and 
 trouble-seeking man's or woman's head?" 
 
 Bradshaw laid aside his pipe. 
 
 "John, I've got a fight on my hands", he said, sud- 
 denly switching the conversation. 
 
 "A fight?" demanded Walton in surprise. 
 
 "It involves a claim to apex rights probability of 
 mining litigation", Dan responded. "Tell you all about 
 it before I leave Butte." 
 
 "Tell me now." 
 
 "It's not serious yet. I'll tell you before I leave. If 
 I get it cleared up, some day I'll make a good proposition 
 to you. Now don't shake your head I know you don't 
 need it, but you would make one to me if you thought I 
 needed it." 
 
 "We won't go into those 'proposition' details right 
 now, Dan, my reformed anarchist", decreed Walton with 
 a smile. "We're too busy being glad to see each other." 
 
 Bradshaw glanced at his watch and sprang from his 
 chair. 
 
 "Yes and I'm keeping you up till daylight", he de- 
 clared. 
 
 "You're not keeping me up I'm the human night 
 owl", protested Walton with a laugh. 
 
 But Bradshaw shook his head. 
 
 "Another day coming", he said. "Also, in this com- 
 ing day, John, I intend calling on one Paddy Skiff. I 
 want him to locate a miner named Jackson and I want 
 both Paddy and Jackson and perhaps a few other men 
 to come out to the mine. I've also got to get some mining 
 supplies." 
 
 Walton stood up and Bradshaw placed a hand on the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 169 
 
 newspaperman's shoulder. 
 
 "One thing more, John. I told you in my letter that 
 I was D. Williams for the time being. I still am, but 
 perhaps not for so much longer now. It is not so much 
 of an assumed name, for Daniel Williams Bradshaw is 
 my complete title, and soon I hope to be able to tell you 
 some more facts you haven't even guessed at as to the 
 why and wherefore of my wanting to let the Bradshaw 
 part rest right now. Paddy Skiff won't say anything 
 about it. The only two others who know of it are 
 respecting my wishes regarding it. One is the clerk and 
 recorder with whom I filed my location notice in my 
 entire name and who is going to be my chief clerk when 
 his term of office expires, and the other is the hard- 
 headed, close-mouthed banker with whom I did business 
 and of whom I have told you. As for Jackson and the 
 other men who might go to the mine from here with 
 Paddy they will only know that they are working for 
 Paddy Skiff and, if they care to make inquiry about it, 
 that some fellow named Williams owns the mine." 
 
 "Your word is law with me, Dan", said Walton smil- 
 ing, as he laid his hand affectionately on the other's arm.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 THE REAL THARNY 
 
 Norton's private office was invaded by a very wel- 
 come visitor the following morning. 
 
 "Well well, what special business brings you down 
 town so early?" demanded Norton of his sister with 
 smiling interest as he placed a chair for her. 
 
 "Serious business, DeWitt", she replied, as she 
 seated herself and he resumed his place at his desk. 
 "My Malvey family is sick Dr. Gilmore told me about 
 it as he was passing the house this morning." 
 
 "And so, of course", her brother put in, "you have 
 come rushing down to go right up there to Working 
 Lane's innermost recesses to give personal attention to 
 the ailing ones." 
 
 "Oh yes, I'm going up there", she returned with quiet 
 determination. "I rather thought when I was there a 
 few days ago that Mrs. Malvey looked on the verge of 
 illness, though she denied it. And now she really is 
 sick." 
 
 "What's the matter with her?" he asked. 
 
 "Typhoid." 
 
 "You're not going up there. I am heart and soul 
 with your efforts to do all you can for deserving ones 
 you've found in Working Lane who need help, but when 
 it comes to nursing typhoid patients " 
 
 But she interrupted him with a little laugh.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 171 
 
 "Not to do any nursing, old silly. Dr. Gilmore is just 
 as interested as I am, bless his dear old heart, and he 
 has a woman staying with Mrs. Malvey and looking after 
 the children, two of whom, by the way, have chicken- 
 pox." 
 
 Norton groaned and threw up his hands with a ges- 
 ture of despair. 
 
 "Typhoid chicken-pox! And you want to dash 
 madly up there to supervise the Malvey home. Can't 
 you send them everything they need without having to 
 jeapordize yourself?" 
 
 "It isn't just the giving of things", she replied. "The 
 personal concern the showing that one really cares, is 
 what actually does the most good. And I do care. Any- 
 how, I've had chicken-pox. Dr. Gilmore says there is no 
 danger if the proper precautions are taken, and he's told 
 me how to take them. I simply must go up there, De- 
 Witt, and take some things along for the children. And, 
 incidentally, it's my day for dropping in on old Mrs. 
 Grady. But what I came to see you about mostly", she 
 went on briskly, "was to ask the loan of Gus from you 
 to drive the car up for me." 
 
 "Where is your own chauffeur?" he asked. 
 
 "I gave him the day off there's a picnic he wanted 
 to attend. So far as going up the Lane is concerned, I 
 wouldn't have the least fear, but the road through the 
 Lane is not easy." 
 
 "There is no denying you, Sis", he said fondly. "Gus 
 shall take you up", and Norton reached for his desk tele- 
 phone to make rapid arrangements to that effect. 
 
 "Gus and the car will be outside in two minutes", he 
 informed her as he hung up the receiver. Then as she 
 rose, he went over to her, and, holding her with a hand 
 on either shoulder, he looked into her eyes,
 
 172 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Look here, little sis, I can't have you taking needless 
 risks. I glory in that good heart of yours that 
 makes you do these things, but", with a little laugh, "I 
 guess I am a bit selfish where you are concerned", and he 
 kissed her. 
 
 When Mary emerged from the Monticana building, 
 Gus and Norton's machine were at the curb, and the 
 chauffeur jumped out quickly to open the door for her. 
 
 It was at that moment that Tharny, coming along, 
 saw her and at once approached her, his hat in hand. He 
 was his usual well-groomed self and, as always when in 
 her presence, politely affable. 
 
 She gave him a friendly smile and paused to welcome 
 him. And to his half -bantering remark that she was out 
 rather early for a pleasure ride, she replied with the dis- 
 closure of her true mission. 
 
 "You are venturing up into Working Lane unes- 
 corted?" he asked in surprise. 
 
 "You forget Gus", she answered. "Besides", and she 
 spoke a bit spiritedly, "it would be ridiculous to think of 
 fearing to go up there. Working Lane is thoroughly 
 honest and true to itself, which is more perhaps than 
 might be said of some other and more favored parts of 
 the city. Of course there is plenty of roughness there, 
 but no one in the Lane would say anything unpleasant to 
 me without some one there quickly resenting it." 
 
 She smiled as she pictured in mind a scene of that 
 sort and a quick championing of her cause, but Tharny 
 misinterpreted her smile, thinking it was meant for him. 
 
 Also he apparently thought he saw a further oppor- 
 tunity to ingratiate himself with Mary Norton, who, in- 
 deed, had come to be so very much in his thoughts and his 
 schemings, too. 
 
 "Let me go with you", he pleaded, "Tell me all about
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 173 
 
 your good deeds up there in Working Lane. Maybe I 
 can be of help, too." 
 
 Laughingly, she permitted him to accompany her. It 
 was far from displeasing to her that he should want to 
 go. While it was true that she never had manifested 
 special interest in him, yet she did not deny that he had 
 some attraction for her. At times, she wondered jupt 
 how strong her liking for him was. 
 
 Before she directed Gus to go to the Lane, she 
 stopped at a grocery store to make several purchases for 
 the Malvey family and old Mrs. Grady. 
 
 Tharny, who accompanied her into the store, begged 
 to be allowed to add some more groceries to her pur- 
 chases, but she compromised with him by saying he 
 could go with her to a toy store a little farther down the 
 street, where she intended to buy a few toys for the Mal- 
 vey children, and add an extra doll for the smallest Mal- 
 vey girl. 
 
 He made a jolly lark of doing that, and was right .in 
 thinking that his action advanced him considerably in 
 her estimation. 
 
 The little plain-board house, in which the Widow 
 Malvey and her children lived, stood at the head of 
 Working Lane, almost directly opposite Carty's place. 
 Coming one day to the Lane to inquire into the welfare 
 of a former laundress of the Norton family, who had 
 married and taken up her residence there, Mary Norton 
 had learned, through the gossip of the former laundress, 
 of the condition of certain families in and near Working 
 Lane that immediately made powerful appeal to her 
 sympathetic nature. She had come away from that visit 
 thinking serious, analytical thoughts with much of thor- 
 ough introspection in them. She accused herself of hav- 
 ing been narrow, self -centered and selfish, though, as a
 
 174 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 matter of fact, she had been nothing of the kind. And 
 her visits to Working Lane families to whom she 
 brought the sunshine of optimism as well as food, cloth- 
 ing and opportunities for work, were to her not mere 
 duty, but whole-hearted desire. 
 
 "You needn't come in", she told Tharny as he helped 
 her from the auto in front of the Malvey place. "Just 
 give me those bundles and wait for me outside, please. 
 
 Tharny knew she was sincere, and so he realized he 
 was safe in persisting in wanting to accompany her into 
 the house. But she smilingly commanded him not to 
 come and so, with what he hoped she would take for re- 
 gretful resignation, he lighted a cigarette and prepared 
 to wait for her. Shortly after she had entered, he saun- 
 tered about as if casually inspecting the surroundings. 
 He eyed Carty's place meditatively, and as if with no 
 fixed purpose in mind, tossed his half burnt cigarette 
 away and strolled over to the saloon. 
 
 Inside the house, Mary encountered Paddy Skiff who 
 was just leaving. 
 
 "Ah Mis' Nortin, 'tis ye then?" he asked with a glad 
 smile. "I was just after bringin' a few things the 
 Missus sent. 'Tis ye will bring Missus Malvey an' the 
 kids the real joy more blessings to ye." 
 
 "And it's mighty good of you and Mrs. Skiff to have 
 been so thoughtful", she responded to the highly pleased 
 Paddy. 
 
 " 'Tis helpin' others is, after all, helpin' ourselves the 
 most, Miss Nortin", he returned still smiling. Then he 
 bowed slightly and left. Outside he slapped his cap on 
 his wavy gray locks and breathed deeply. "Dom fine 
 gurl!" he said aloud shaking his head emphatically, and 
 went down the gulch to Hotel Skiff. 
 
 When Tharny entered Carty's, he made as if to in-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 175 
 
 spect the cigars in the case at the front end of the bar, 
 but he sent quick, sharp glances around the place. 
 
 At the other end of the bar, Vignon was expatiating, 
 in bellowing tone, some of his pet theories. With hat 
 off, coarse hair all awry and turned-back shirt collar 
 revealing his bullishly muscular neck, he was brute force 
 incarnate. 
 
 Carty came forward to inquire what Tharny wanted, 
 but not before the latter had caught some of Vignon's 
 utterances. 
 
 Tharny bought several cigars and then asked Carty 
 who the speaker at the other end of the bar might be. 
 
 Carty told him. 
 
 "Vignon", said Tharny slowly to himself. "Has a 
 peculiar sound." Then to Carty: "Take a cigar your- 
 self." After that, he asked Carty several pointed ques- 
 tions involving Vignon, and received the information he 
 desired for Carty always was eager to please generous- 
 minded customers. Then Tharny conversed casually 
 for a few moments of other subjects. 
 
 "This Vignon certainly seems a very unusual person", 
 remarked Tharny reverting to their first subject. "I'd 
 like to meet him. Would you mind telling him so?" 
 
 Vignon did not come at once after getting the mes- 
 sage. Seemingly to ignore the request at first, was his 
 way of showing he was not in the least subservient. 
 Then in a moment or two more he slowly, swaggeringly 
 made his way to Tharny. 
 
 The latter held out his hand, and after slight hesita- 
 tion, Vignon accepted it for a brief instant. 
 
 "I understand your name is Vignon", Tharny began. 
 "Mine's Tharny. I've heard of you", but he did not tell 
 Vignon how recently. 
 
 "Yeh?" grunted the other.
 
 176 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "You working now?" 
 
 Vignon regarded Tharny with something of belliger- 
 ent suspicion. 
 
 "What's the idea?" he asked. 
 
 "Oh, I thought if you weren't, you might be interested 
 in a proposition I could make to you", replied Tharny. 
 
 "What is it?" demanded Vignon, suspiciously, but 
 not at all belligerently. 
 
 "Have a cigar first", invited Tharny tendering one 
 which Vignon took. "Let's step outside where we won't 
 be of such interest to everybody in this place", Tharny 
 went on, looking around at the other patrons who were 
 more or less inclined to stare at him and Vignon. 
 
 Tharny and Vignon had been talking outside Carty's 
 for several minutes, when Tharny saw the door of the 
 house across the way open and knew that Mary Norton 
 had finished her visit there. 
 
 "My office is in the Monticana building third floor. 
 Come there at nine o'clock tonight", Tharny said quickly 
 to Vignon. "Just knock at the door I'll be there." 
 
 When Tharny came up to Mary Norton across the 
 roadway, he made what he wanted her to take as anxious 
 inquiry about the Malvey family. 
 
 And after she had told him, she remarked : 
 
 "I didn't know you were acquainted in the Lane, Mr. 
 Tharny, but I see you are." 
 
 "Oh, that fellow I was talking to?" returned Tharny 
 with a laugh. "His name is Vignon, and he's quite a 
 character." 
 
 "What a peculiar name", she said slowly. Then very 
 candidly, "I thought him particularly villainous looking." 
 
 Tharny smiled. "He's not bad I assure you. He's 
 really very useful that is to say, he has it in him to be
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 177 
 
 useful. And now where else do we go, Miss Angel of 
 Mercy?" 
 
 "To Mrs. Grady's and one or two other places to 
 which you may come along if you have an hour or so to 
 spare." 
 
 "Most gladly", he assented.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 PADDY SKIFF 
 
 That morning, Bradshaw's course lay in the direction 
 of Working Lane, and he went there by way of Klem- 
 ner's shop. He did not mean to stop there, but to view 
 it in passing, but he found, when he came to the place, 
 that it no longer was ornamented with a wooden boot. 
 A broadly smiling young man was conducting a fruit 
 stand in Klemner's former shop, and he could not give 
 any information as to the shoemaker's new location. 
 
 Bradshaw noted that Working Lane presented little 
 change from what he had known it to be perhaps it 
 appeared a bit more cramped after his life in the moun- 
 tains. 
 
 He encountered Paddy Skiff at the door of the board- 
 ing house he had known as Mrs. Inez Harrity's place, 
 Paddy having just returned down the Lane from Mrs. 
 Malvey's. 
 
 He looked keenly at Bradshaw, but did not recog- 
 nize him. Indeed, Dan had drawn his hat brim down 
 more over his eyes than customary. 
 
 Bradshaw stopped and Paddy paused. 
 
 "I would like to see Mr. Patrick Skiff", said Brad- 
 shaw formally. 
 
 "Then keep yer eyes on me", replied Paddy. 
 
 "Oh, then I take it that you are Mr. Skiff", ventured 
 Dan.
 
 179 
 
 "Ye take it right", returned the other. 
 
 'I believe you are acquainted with one, Daniel Brad- 
 shaw", said Dan. 
 
 Paddy glanced hastily about, then beckoned with his 
 head. "Come on with me", he invited, and led the way 
 into the "office", a fairly good-sized room with a bat- 
 tered, newspaper-strewn desk in one corner, a few 
 wooden kitchen chairs and a door giving access to the 
 long dining room, for the "office" was more of a lounging 
 place for the lodgers than anything like a sanctum for 
 the proprietors. On this occasion, Paddy and his visitor 
 had the "office" to themselves, and Paddy, after locking 
 both its doors, indicated a chair for Bradshaw and then 
 took a chair in front of the miner and close enough to 
 permit of a low-voiced conversation. 
 
 Leaning forward, Paddy demanded brusquely, "An* 
 what is there ye kin be after tellin' me of Dan Brad- 
 shaw?" He did not wait for an answer. "Or is it 
 somethin' ye have come to find out 'bout him? If it's to 
 tell of him, then welcome. But if it's to pry into his 
 alff airs, then to hell with ye !" 
 
 "I only want to ask a question", said Bradshaw 
 quietly, with difficulty restraining his desire fo laugh. 
 "It is important I should know when and how he left 
 here." 
 
 "An' it's importan' fer me to be answerin' no ques- 
 tions concernin' him without I know who asks 'em an' 
 why", declared Paddy Skiff with spirit. "An' before ye 
 go one bit further, let me tell ye, sir, I was an' am his 
 frien', an' anything ye've a mind to say 'bout him may 
 be used agin ye." 
 
 Bradshaw laughed and Paddy leaped from his chair. 
 " Tis no laffin' matter", almost shouted the aroused 
 Paddy. Then more quietly; "If yer laff, however, is in
 
 180 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 agreement with me, then all right. If it's meanin' to be 
 at him at Dan Bradshaw, then dom it, say so, man, an' 
 let's be to it, fer ye'll have to lick me right down to the 
 groun' before ye leave this very place an* I'm after 
 thinkin' there's still one good fight left in me yet." 
 
 Bradshaw took off his hat and tossed it on the desk. 
 "Paddy, you dear old dynamiter, don't you really know 
 me?" 
 
 Then it was that Paddy caught the familiar ring in 
 the miner's tone and he stood for an instant as if hypno- 
 tized, peering at Bradshaw's face. 
 
 Dan stood up and placed a hand on either shoulder of 
 his friend. 
 
 A look of gladness swept over the face of Paddy Skiff, 
 and as he held Bradshaw off at arm's length to regard 
 him intently, he exclaimed joyously, "By the bells of 
 Shannon ! 'tis me brave lad, Dan Bradshaw hisself !" 
 
 And with that the old man threw his arms around the 
 returned one and hugged him right heartily. "I can't 
 help it Dan, I got to do it", he declared. Then he pushed 
 Dan back into his chair and resumed his own. "An' ain't 
 it jus' like ye to be comin' an' devilin' the ol' man with 
 jus' such nonsense as do I know Dan Bradshaw an' 
 where is he, an' such stuff. Tell me all, Lad. An' then 
 maybe as how you'd be wantin' to see the Missus." He 
 smiled more broadly. "There's now a Missus Paddy 
 Skiff as was Mrs. " 
 
 Bradshaw interrupted, shaking a finger at him. "I 
 know all about it, you gay Lothario Walton told me." 
 He reached out and taking Paddy Skiff's hand, shook it 
 vigorously. My congratulations to you a million of 
 them. But I am not so sure I can congratulate her. 
 Still, you may have improved considerably. Anyhow, I
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 181 
 
 knew you were a goner going to picture shows and the 
 like." 
 
 And so, for a brief interval, they indulged in happy, 
 good-natured banter. 
 
 "I got the letter ye wrote to me months ago", Paddy 
 informed Dan, "an' I attended to all ye asked. What 
 clothes ye had left are safe, an' yer drawings I put away 
 against the time ye would want thim. What money ye 
 left I paid yer bills with the Missus refusin' to accept 
 pay fer the few days room an' board ye owed. I would 
 be askin' ye to come to Carty's fer a social glass, but I 
 think I know yer wishes in the matter." 
 
 "I think you do", agreed Dan. "No Carty's and no 
 social glasses, Paddy Skiff. Also, for the time being and 
 for your own information, Dan Bradshaw is still under 
 cover, and D. Williams is on deck and my keen appreci- 
 ation for Mrs. Skiff's generosity and your kindness." 
 
 "Fergit yer appreciation an' if it's D. Williams ye 
 want to be callin' yerself, then D. Williams or D-any- 
 thing-else it is, with no soul learnin' it from me", 
 declared Paddy emphatically. "But nothin' on earth kin 
 make me think of ye as any but Dan Bradshaw an' 
 keepin' ye that way in me heart. Talk to me as much as 
 ye please, Lad, fer the Missus is in the kitchen an' 
 there'll be no one comin' here till the supper hour. Kin 
 ye stay fer it? I kin tell the Missus that we've special 
 comp'ny an' ye'll get a better feed nor any we got here 
 in the ol' days", and he poked a playful finger at Dan. 
 
 But Bradshaw expressed his regret at not being able 
 to do so. Then he detailed his idea of having Paddy and 
 his wife dispose of their boarding house, Paddy to go to 
 the mine as foreman, taking Jackson and several other 
 trustworthy men with him for shift bosses and the like ;
 
 182 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Mrs. Paddy Skiff to have the valuable boarding-house 
 concession at the mine. 
 
 "It listens fine", said Paddy enthusiastically, "not 
 because of the great chance ye so nobly offer me, Lad, an' 
 the Missus, but because I kin be where ye are. I'm not 
 surprised at yer makin' good an' becomin' a big minin* 
 man I'd bin surprised if ye hadn't. We've a chance to 
 sell this place an' when I tell the Missus of what Misther 
 D. Williams if after offerin' us she'll jump at the chance 
 fer the mountain air out there would suit her fine. 
 
 "I'll write you a formal letter about it", said Brad- 
 shaw, "so that the Missus will see it is bona fide." 
 
 "What she'll see is that it's dom fine", declared Paddy. 
 "I need no writin' from ye. I'm boss in me own house, 
 Lad. I made up me mind to that when we got married, 
 only ", he hesitated, " only, of course, I don't want to 
 be rough 'bout it an' so I ain't said much 'bout it to her 
 yet. Ye mus* have a way with wimmin", Paddy contin- 
 ued judicially, "to make 'em see things as they should." 
 
 "I suppose you know all about that", said Bradshaw 
 gravely. 
 
 "That I do an* what's better still, I'm learnin' more 
 of matrimonial deeplomacy all the time. When ye have 
 solved the way of makin' a woman think ye are follerin' 
 her when really ye are leadin' her, ye have solved a dom 
 lot of problim." 
 
 "And have you solved it?" asked Bradshaw un- 
 smilingly. 
 
 "Well", replied Paddy slowly and reflectively, "I'm 
 studyin* the subject hard all the time." 
 
 Their talk drifted to other days. They spoke of the 
 League, its breaking up and what was likely to follow. 
 And Bradshaw thanked Paddy for his efforts in trying 
 to trace him.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 183 
 
 "When ye didn' show up at Carty's that night after 
 the big fight that broke up the League", said Paddy, "me 
 an' Jackson got sore at ourselves fer havin' left ye to 
 come up there by yerself. We feared maybe ye run 
 afoul of Vignon an' his gang, but as we was gettin' un- 
 easy 'bout it, in come Vignon an' two of his crew, Wil- 
 kins an' Snitch, an' they was smilin' free an' easy an' 
 frien'ly too, so we felt sure ye had not met 'em." 
 
 Then Paddy related his subsequent efforts to locate 
 Bradshaw. 
 
 "How did the others the rest of the boys, regard my 
 sudden leaving?" asked Bradshaw with a slight smile. 
 
 Paddy scratched his head. "Ye know how them 
 things is, an' specially in a big place. Well ye know 
 how it is in most organization affairs The king is dead, 
 long live the king !' Some thought ye might be in one of 
 the outlayin' mines an' some thought ye might have gone 
 to Arizona or over to the Coor de Lanes. Ye know how 
 many of the boys go wanderin' 'roun' that way." 
 "And what of Cronel?" asked Bradshaw. 
 
 The smile left Paddy's face and he crossed himself as 
 he spoke. "May his soul rest in peace ye'll not find him 
 on this earth." 
 
 "You don't mean " began Bradshaw. 
 
 "He's gone", Paddy interrupted him. "It was this 
 what do ye call it? gallapin' consumption, the doctor 
 called it, got him. That the man grieved hisself to death 
 is me firm opinion. That attack on him at the last 
 meetin' of the League was a dirty piece of bus'ness an' 
 he never got over broodin' 'bout it. There was much in 
 his ideas an' much in his talk we could not agree with, 
 but the man was good at heart an' he done no harm to no 
 one except as he might have put some foolish notions in 
 the heads of them what believed him yet, after all, just
 
 184 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 how many of them could understand exac'ly what he was 
 drivin' at anyhow?" 
 
 "He certainly was a good man in many ways", agreed 
 Bradshaw slowly. "A dreamer and impracticable will- 
 ing to sacrifice himself to his own ideas and thinking he 
 was doing it for the welfare of humanity. He was 
 treated most shamefully at that last League meeting. I 
 am sorry he is gone." 
 
 "A few of us gave him decent burial he havin' no 
 relatives", said Paddy, "an* we carried out his last re- 
 quest that what little money he might leave after funeral 
 expenses, be given to the orphans' home." 
 
 Neither spoke for the space of a few moments. 
 
 "What's become of Vignon?" asked Bradshaw. 
 
 "Bad cess to the blatherskite!" exclaimed Paddy in- 
 dignantly. "He tried hard enough to git the League 
 together again, but most of the boys had all of it an' 
 him they wanted. They got Direc' Action with a ven- 
 geance that night ye bowled 'em over like ninepins durin' 
 the big fight of the League", and Paddy gestured express- 
 ively. "Fer a time Vignon laid low an' then begin 
 shootin' off his mouth again at Carty's. He manages to 
 hold onto jobs fer he is a darin' miner sure enough. 
 Sometime ago he cut out of here an' I was told as how 
 he'd bin up to his ol' stuff down in Arizona, but they 
 put the rollers under him quick there an' 'twas said he 
 headed fer the Coor de Lanes an' when it got unpleasant 
 fer Direc' Actioners like him there, he come back here 
 again. He's what ye might call a circulatin', agitatin', 
 hell-raisin' " Paddy paused and blinked at Bradshaw. 
 "I jus' don't seem to be as fluent as I was in describin* 
 that feller", he said. "But I do know he's a dom bad egg 
 with a bad finish due him. He's here in Biitte again an* 
 fer the present keepin' his mouth shut. Maybe he thinks
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 185 
 
 the time's not ripe jus* yet fer an' outbust by him an' his 
 crowd, an' so long as they're allowed to run 'roun' with 
 their Direc' Action yappin' they're boun' to raise a fuss 
 an' worse wherever they are." 
 
 "And what about Klemner?" asked Bradshaw. 
 
 "Moved further from the Lane", replied Paddy. 
 "The Missus, who don't go out much but gits her infor- 
 mation in matters of that sort by means of unfailable 
 women wireless, says Klemner's girl has got the hanker- 
 in' to get into the movin' picture game like as not to carry 
 a spear or helpin' now an' again to form a backgroun' of 
 merry villagers fer the 'King Of Hip-hoo-roo-ria' in 'The 
 Curse of a Crown', or one of them kind of productions 
 the Missus goes wild 'bout. The Missus says the girl is 
 pesterin' her father to send her to Los Angeles so she 
 kin begin what she calls her new career, but so far she 
 ain't even got to the depot." 
 
 "There's one more Crunch", said Bradshaw. 
 
 Paddy smiled. "He comes here more than he do to 
 see Misther Walton this bein' much closer to Carty's. 
 The Missus keeps howlin' we mus' stop feedin' him, but 
 then I notice she always fixes him up a good handout 
 each time. An' 'tis a fact Carty's good to him too. He 
 lets Crunch spend what money he's got at the bar an' 
 when Crunch is broke, Carty slips him a piece of change. 
 That beats tryin' to reform a feller an' lettiii' him starve 
 at the same time." 
 
 "You've put me right at home once more, Paddy", 
 said Bradshaw with a laugh. 
 
 "Sure ye would recognize the situation quickly", re- 
 marked Paddy. "So far as the miners is concerned right 
 now, organization talk differs. There's too many dif- 
 feren' ideas anyhow. Many of the men look at it this 
 way Why should they be after payin' a couple of dol-
 
 186 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 lars or so into some new organization that comes along 
 claimin' to be fer their benefit, an' then when that or- 
 ganization busts up fer one reason or enother or both, 
 'tis found the expenses has jus' about ate up the ex- 
 chequer? Then there's some want to go back to the first 
 union affiliation in stronger numbers. There's them as 
 wants entirely new affiliation an' so it goes. Maybe 
 some day they'll all join up, but 'twill be a real high 
 class, genuinely American organization they'll get in 
 with an' not one that's run by a few hell-raisers either 
 that kind of an organization or nothin'. That's my best 
 guess. The trades and other unions are goin' along 'bout 
 the same as ever. 
 
 Bradshaw again discussed with Paddy the latter's 
 place at the M. N. and the boarding-house proposition 
 for the "Missus". Also there was a definite understand- 
 ing that nothing was to be said of Dan's visit to Paddy. 
 
 "If you can find those other fellows who were fired 
 that time with Jackson the time I investigated" and 
 Bradshaw smiled as he spoke "bring them along with 
 Jackson. They're good miners and steady, and they're 
 trustworthy." 
 
 They stood up and grasped hands firmly. "And now, 
 Paddy Skiff, so long. I'll see you at the M. N.", said 
 Bradshaw. "If you have my drawings handy, I'd like 
 them. Give Crunch what clothes I left." 
 
 "Surest thing you know I wasn' goin' to let ye go 
 without them", returned Paddy. "Wait jus' a minute 
 an' I'll get them." 
 
 He was back in a few moments with the papers he 
 had so carefully put away for Dan. 
 
 "If there is anything you want to know about your 
 coming to the mine", said Dan, "write to me D. Wil- 
 liams, you know", and Bradshaw gave Paddy his ad-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 187 
 
 dress. "I'll have that boarding-house contract waiting 
 for you at the mine." 
 
 "I'll be there like a duck", declared Paddy. "But if 
 ye or D. Williams has any contracts waitin' fer me at 
 the mine or anywhere else", and there was a twinkle in 
 Paddy's eyes, "I'll have to shoot ye or him. I want 
 no contracts from either of ye." 
 
 "I'll write you that formal offer anyhow", said Dan, 
 picking up his hat, " just for the sake of the Missus. I 
 want her to feel sure that everything is strictly on the 
 level. And that boarding-house is going to be remodeled 
 into the best of its kind." 
 
 As they came to the outer door, an automobile was 
 proceeding slowly down the Lane and Bradshaw re- 
 garded it indifferently until it came closer. Then as he 
 noticed the girl in it, he started slightly and with a quick 
 look, took in the man beside her. 
 
 "Who's that?" he demanded. 
 
 "Miss Nortin, of course", Paddy informed him. "She 
 does a world of good in the Lane." 
 
 "No, no I mean the man with her", Bradshaw said. 
 
 "A feller named Tharny some kind of a minin' man 
 I understan'. He come up once to look at the Benton 
 when I was workin' there." 
 
 Bradshaw intently watched the machine and its oc- 
 cupants until a turn in the Lane hid it from view. 
 
 "Does this Tharny come up here, too I should say, 
 much?" he asked turning to Paddy. 
 
 "First time I seen him up here", replied the other. 
 
 "Well, good-bye, Paddy", and Dan held out his hand 
 for a final handshake. "I'll be looking for both you and 
 the Missus, and I know all that will be needed to make 
 that boarding-house perfection will be the super- 
 vision of Mrs. Paddy Skiff."
 
 188 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Paddy laughed as he pressed Dan's hand. 
 
 "Ye sure are lookin' grand, let me tell ye that again", 
 he declared. He stood off to admire Dan. "Also", and 
 he smiled in his most winning way, "ye sure are not the 
 hot-head I once knew there's a big difference about ye 
 - >-an' there's a fine reserve to ye now. An' if yer not 
 Irish, Lad, 'tis not yer fault, but then some of yer ances- 
 tors at least mus' have come close enough to the Imerald 
 Isle to have kissed the Blarney Stone !"
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 THE SCHEMERS 
 
 At two minutes past nine o'clock that night, Vignon 
 entered the Monticana building and took an elevator for 
 the third floor. 
 
 At three minutes past nine o'clock, Bradshaw entered 
 the same building and took another elevator also for the 
 third floor. 
 
 As Dan came to the long hallway that led from the 
 main corridor to various mining offices, one of which 
 was Tharny's, he halted abruptly, for he beheld Vignon 
 in the act of knocking at Tharny's door. And, as he 
 stepped back into the main corridor again, he glimpsed 
 the door opening disclosing Tharny, who shook hands 
 with Vignon as he bade him enter. 
 
 "Oh ho, so that's the lay of the land", said Bradshaw 
 to himself. "Good thing I was delayed a bit in finding 
 out where this fellow Tharny hangs out. Morning will 
 do." 
 
 Closing the door after Vignon had entered, Tharny 
 motioned to a chair and then reoccupied the office-chair 
 behind his flat-topped desk. 
 
 "Smoke?" he asked. 
 
 Vignon nodded. 
 
 Tharny pulled open a desk drawer and took out a 
 box of good cigars, opened it and extended it to Vignon 
 who helped himself to one.
 
 190 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "I don't know whether you know my business or not", 
 remarked Tharny as he lighted a cigar, Vignon doing 
 likewise and lolling back in his chair. "But I guess I 
 told you something about my being a mining man. I'm 
 representing a big syndicate right now. Ever hear of 
 the big gold strike made in the Red Flower mountains ?" 
 
 "Yeh somethin' about it", replied Vignon. 
 
 "The crowd I represent is getting in there that is to 
 say, it proposes to do so", Tharny informed the other. 
 "I'll come to the point, Mr. Vignon" Vignon straight- 
 ened up a bit at being thus addressed "and give you 
 the outline of the situation. The syndicate I represent 
 has, through me, secured options on claims riot far from 
 the biggest gold proposition up there a property run 
 by a fellow named D. Williams. We that is to say, I 
 am going to try to prove that we have apex rights in the 
 claims I hold by option you know enough about mining 
 to understand what I mean. If I have that apex right or 
 rights so far as the veins in the property immediately 
 adjoining the main Williams property is concerned, and 
 which adjoining property he also controls, then I might 
 go on and claim the same rights with regard to his main 
 mine." 
 
 "I getcha", put in Vignon. "It's a case of ousting 
 Mr. D. Williams when things is ripe I seen something 
 like that pulled before in my mining experience." 
 
 Vignon leaned back, pulling at his cigar giving him- 
 self airs. This, indeed, was the life, this thing of mix- 
 ing up in big mining matters with the representative of 
 a prominent mining syndicate. 
 
 "Good you're very astute Mr. Vignon", and Tharny 
 leaned forward. 
 
 Vignon frowned a little. Tharny thought he was
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 191 
 
 impressed, but Vignon was merely a bit puzzled by the 
 tribute. 
 
 "Mining litigation is always very problematical", 
 Tharny went on, and then asked crisply, "What do you 
 know, Vignon, of labor matters in that locality?" 
 
 Vignon studied a spot on the floor at his feet and 
 then suddenly looked up with a smirk. 
 
 "I think I gotcha again", he said. "But tell me some 
 more." 
 
 And Tharny did. 
 
 For more than an hour he spoke. 
 
 "There's nothing at all to do until the spring season 
 opens," Tharny concluded, "which is only a matter of a 
 very few months anyhow. Meantime, keep on handling 
 things here for your big league idea and work around to 
 the proposition of bringing the Williams miners into its 
 jurisdiction along with other miners in the state. If the 
 Williams bunch once is under the league jurisdiction 
 well, any tieup in this camp will tie them up, until well, 
 until things are adjusted here. That ought to give Wil- 
 liams a labor run for his money. I think that will be 
 the finishing touch needed." 
 
 "Yeh I shouldn' wonder", agreed Vignon affably. 
 
 "You keep in touch with me right along", Tharny 
 instructed him, "and in the spring you might be able to 
 swing the jurisdiction thing if your league is going. 
 Anyhow it's worth trying. Meantime, on the last of each 
 month you call here and I'll hand you a hundred dollars." 
 
 "I getcha", said Vignon and, reaching over, he took 
 another cigar which he stowed away in his coat pocket. 
 
 Later that night, Vignon sat at a corner table at 
 Carty's with several persons congenial to him, including 
 Wilkins and Snitch, and in his most impressive way, he 
 outlined a plan for the reorganization of the League,
 
 192 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 painting a rough, but striking picture of state-wide 
 jurisdictional powe'rs. 
 
 He felt a mighty sense of new importance and acted 
 the part to such extent indeed that Carty was moved to 
 inquire of Wilkins who had stepped up to the bar for a 
 match, "What's that fellow Vignon been drinking to- 
 day? He's all hopped up." 
 
 And that sense of importance was with Vignon the 
 next morning so that he gave himself up to rather lurid 
 fancies. As those ideas grew in his mind, he began to 
 picture himself already a new power in the city's affairs 
 and when the mental visioning had been stimulated by a 
 few drinks of whiskey, he felt convinced that it was time 
 for action. He sat down at a table at Carty's to revel in 
 his thoughts. Ah, he had it what a fool not to have 
 thought of it before! It was a fine idea, but if he in- 
 tended to be a great power, he would have to think of 
 these things more quickly. Really, he was quite impa- 
 tient with himself. If he could call a meeting and form 
 a new nucleus of a League, that would be a fine start, but 
 if he could call such a meeting and give it definite prom- 
 ise of a recognized status, then the League would grow 
 by leaps and bounds in a marvelously short time and 
 he, Vignon, would be the recognized backbone of it. And 
 what better promise to take to such a meeting than that 
 some of the big mining companies readily would accord 
 due recognition to a well-organized, powerful League 
 that could and would maintain strict jurisdictional rights 
 over most of the labor in the city and later in the state, 
 whether the employing companies liked it or not? Why, 
 beyond question, the leading companies would be glad to 
 come in on the ground floor, as it were to come in at 
 the very start with iron-clad contracts. 
 
 Vignon leaned back and hooked his thumbs in the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 193 
 
 armholes of his vest, his head a little to one side and his 
 facial expression his closest attempt at looking judicial. 
 
 And would he make those contracts specify a very 
 high minimum wage scale regardless of copper's price, 
 and also a maximum working day of six hours? Well 
 maybe. Yet that might be quite a radical departure at 
 this time at the start. No, by hell, he would put those 
 stipulations in the contracts and that would please his 
 immediate followers, and if he could persuade the com- 
 panies to believe that he could bring about an ameliora- 
 tion of the contracts, he also might be able to persuade 
 them to see how very, very valuable he too was to them 
 and so he could whipsaw the companies and the League 
 and by Jumping Crickets, it was a fine idea! And he 
 smote the table with heavy, clinched fist. 
 
 "Trying to bust up the furniture?" called out Carty 
 from back of the bar. 
 
 "This ain't furniture it's junk", Vignon snarled 
 back and hit the table again. 
 
 "Well, come have a drink anyhow", invited Carty 
 good-naturedly. 
 
 Vignon accepted. In fact he imbibed two more. 
 
 "Got important business this afternoon", he said with 
 an impressive nod at Carty. "Got to see DeWitt 
 Norton." 
 
 "Like fun you have", replied the unimpressed Carty. 
 
 "Go chase yourself!" exclaimed Vignon contemptu- 
 ously. "I'll make all you birds sit up and take notice." 
 
 Carty calmly went on wiping a beer glass. "DeWitt 
 Nortin wouldn't see you with a spy-glass", he remarked. 
 
 "I'll be close enough so's he can see me with his eyes 
 half-shut", boasted Vignon. "An' if any of the other 
 big comp'ny men are in our city, I may see some of them 
 too."
 
 194 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 " 'Maybe* is a damn good word", remarked Carty. 
 
 "Also got business with my friend, Gerald Tharny", 
 Vignon went on loftily. "I may get the time to drop in 
 on him, too, this afternoon." 
 
 "By gravy, the man knows them all!" exclaimed 
 
 Carty gazing at Vignon with pretended amazement. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Whatever the afternoon promised for Tharny in the 
 way of visitors, there was no mistaking that he had one 
 that morning. 
 
 Bradshaw called on him. 
 
 "I am D. Williams", Dan said crisply as he took the 
 chair opposite Tharny. "I didn't know until yesterday 
 that you were in Butte just now and expected to get in 
 touch with you in Spokane." 
 
 "I'm very glad to see you", said Tharny suavely, but 
 he did not offer to shake hands, nor did Dan make any 
 move to do so. 
 
 "I'll make my talk as brief as I can and to the point", 
 Dan announced, "for I'm leaving Butte at noon. This is 
 my statement to you, Mr. Tharny I know all about the 
 syndicate you represent. I know you have been given a 
 lot of authority by it to handle its Montana business, 
 though as yet it hasn't come into this state to any great 
 extent. In fact, you've somehow bluffed those Spokane 
 people into the belief that they must leave all their Mon- 
 tana affairs strictly in your hands in order to make good 
 in this state." 
 
 Bradshaw regarded Tharny with unflinching, steely 
 look, and the other kept his eyes lowered as he toyed with 
 a penholder. 
 
 "And now let me tell you something that I mean", 
 Bradshaw continued. "You can play all the dirty game 
 you want, but I'll not come across to you."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 195 
 
 Tharny raised his head with a jerk. 
 "Dirty game?" he repeated. "What do you mean 
 what are you talking about?" He threw the penholder 
 back on the desk. "And I don't understand your 'come 
 across' allusion." 
 
 "Don't fool with me, Tharny", Bradshaw warned. "I 
 know what I'm talking about. You planted that engi- 
 neering crew up there next to one of my outlying claims 
 after you had some development work done. I know the 
 whole scheme, for I went over there and had a talk with 
 the engineer in charge and I'll say for him that he is a 
 decent man. You're bluffing about sinking any big 
 money in that ground to prove any apex rights. I know 
 that territory from A to Z, and your sending that lawyer 
 to me to tell me that you have good reason to believe you 
 could develop apex rights in that ground that would give 
 you a fine footing for involved mining litigation, was all 
 bosh." 
 
 "I didn't send him to tell you that", said Tharny. 
 "Oh no, you didn't. He came ostensibly to propose a 
 resurvey of lines, but the information he managed to 
 give me was what I just have told you. And the whole 
 thing is bosh." 
 
 "Is it?" asked Tharny with a suave maliciousness. 
 "Yes, it is", Bradshaw declared positively. "But 
 that's not the worst of it. The implication of that mis- 
 erable shyster of yours that perhaps I could effect a 
 settlement with you, nearly caused me to throw him down 
 the mountain side. I would have if I hadn't remembered 
 that he was only acting for you. I wish you, Mr. Tharny, 
 had come up there with that kind of a proposition." 
 
 "I was too busy to see you personally, Mr. Williams 
 that Red Flower mountain business is merely a side 
 issue with me."
 
 196 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Side issue nothing. The Spokane syndicate found at 
 the time I was getting my property going right that it 
 needed some good mine to augment its Coeur d'Alene 
 holdings and tried to buy my claim. I wouldn't sell. So 
 I understand from mighty good authority that you under- 
 took to handle the thing for the syndicate and your 
 scheme is to force me to sell or tie me up with litigation ; 
 wear me out. That game has been played before. Also 
 I judge you are either trying to get yourself in more sol- 
 idly with the syndicate, and don't care how you do it, 
 or you are desperately in need of money." Dan rose to 
 his feet. "Tharny, you're a damned crook!" he ex- 
 claimed not at all loudly, but very emphatically. 
 
 Tharny sprang to his feet, his face almost livid. 
 
 "Get out of here get out!" he commanded. 
 
 "No, not get out", said Bradshaw quietly. "And 
 you'll never put me out. I didn't expect to arrange any 
 details here. I have another plan as to that. But when 
 I found you were in Butte, I couldn't overlook the treat 
 I had promised myself of telling you a few things. Just 
 bear in mind that I won't be frightened, coerced nor 
 wearied into selling, and I'll fight to the last ditch for 
 my rights. Nor will I pay a skunk like you one cent of 
 tribute to switch the syndicate's attention away from 
 me. And never send that pitiful go-between to my place 
 again or I'll send him back to you in a strawberry cup." 
 
 "Get out I'll have you put out of here", and Tharny's 
 nervous and livid face betokened his anger as he made 
 as if to move towards the door leading to his general 
 office. 
 
 "No need to exert yourself, Tharny", Bradshaw said 
 with more than a tinge of sarcasm in his tone. "I have 
 to go now anyway." 
 
 For many minutes after Bradshaw had left, Tharny
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 197 
 
 sat hunched in his chair, angry and white and muttering 
 dire threats. 
 
 ***** 
 
 And with the coming of mid-afternoon came word, 
 via private telephone, to DeWitt Norton from his outer 
 office that one Mike Vignon wanted to see him person- 
 ally. 
 
 "Ask him what his business is", instructed Norton 
 and hung up the receiver. 
 
 "If it's business I'll go at once", said his sister who 
 was ensconced in a comfortable leather chair near her 
 brother's desk. "I only dropped in to say hello and 
 remind you that we dine out with Mr. Tharny this 
 evening." 
 
 "I don't think it's business, it " and then the bell 
 of his private telephone rang again. 
 
 It seemed the visitor had important business pertain- 
 ing to labor matters to transact with Mr. Norton 
 Would Mr. Norton see him now or set a definite date 
 later? 
 
 Mary was standing and she whispered quickly to her 
 brother, "I'm going." 
 
 "Let him come in now", said Norton to the man at 
 the other end of the line. Replacing the receiver, he 
 spoke to his sister. "Mary, if you don't mind, please step 
 into the other office and I'll quickly dispose of this visitor. 
 I want to see you before you go." 
 
 She did as bidden, seating herself in a big arm chair 
 beside the open door of the snug little inner office that 
 Norton sometimes used. She could not be seen from the 
 office now occupied by her brother, nor could she, from 
 her place, see who might enter it, but she heard the door 
 open and the visitor enter. 
 
 She heard her brother invite him to be seated, and
 
 198 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 then in his concise business tone inquire what the other 
 wanted. She heard a not quite distinct exchange of re- 
 marks and then her brother's voice. 
 
 "I don't care to discuss the matter at all with you, 
 Mr. Vignon." 
 
 Vignon! She raised her head quickly. Where had 
 she heard that name? Why did she so immediately asso- 
 ciate it with something disagreeable? Where why, of 
 course the man in front of the saloon opposite Mrs. 
 Malvey's the man to whom Tharny had been talking 
 and whom she had thought so particularly vicious 
 looking. 
 
 Again her brother's brisk, cool tone came to her. 
 
 "There are contracts in force right now even though 
 there is no such organization as the one you speak of 
 with jurisdictional powers. Your proposition as to mak- 
 ing contracts with a League about to be formed, is im- 
 practical and utterly ridiculous. I'll always do business 
 with any proper representation and if a bona fide union 
 obtains jurisdictional control, I'll do my business with it. 
 I think that is all." 
 
 She heard the shuffle of Vignon's feet as he arose and 
 heard his muttering tone. 
 
 Then again her brother's voice. 
 
 "I suppose the next thing you'll be suggesting is that 
 you could fix things all right between the employing con- 
 cerns and the League, but I'm not looking for any fixers. 
 That door opens into the hallway." 
 
 Some more shuffling of feet, the opening of a door, 
 and again the heavy voice of the visitor. 
 
 Again she heard her brother's tone. "No that is 
 final." 
 
 The door closed and Norton called out, "Come in, 
 Sis the interview is ended."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 199 
 
 He looked up laughingly at her as she came in and 
 stood by his desk. 
 
 "I do catch some queer fish in the course of the day's 
 work and that one just in here is one of the queerest in 
 a long time." 
 
 "You've got to promise me one thing, DeWitt", she 
 said seriously. "Won't you be more careful about letting 
 every sort of person in here who wants to come in ? Say 
 you promise." 
 
 "Oh now, Sis I am able to " 
 
 "Say you promise." 
 
 "Well I promise", and he laughed and caught her 
 hand. 
 
 "And say you promise you won't let that man in here 
 any more", she persisted. 
 
 "Now Sis" 
 
 "Say you promise." 
 
 "Well all right, I promise. He's not a charming vis- 
 itor at that." 
 
 "I think he is terrible I have a real fear of him!" 
 she exclaimed with a vigor that made her brother laugh 
 again.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 THE UNKINDEST CUT 
 
 From the Monticana building, Vignon betook himself 
 along the street for several blocks, then turned into an 
 alleyway, that was a mere slit between two tall buildings. 
 This path he traversed to its end where was a small, low 
 door, the back entrance to a saloon Italian Joe's place. 
 Vignon felt in need of proper solace, but was not inclined 
 to go to Carty's for it. He was smarting from Norton's 
 words and still mindful of the surprise felt by him, at 
 the time, in not being able to bring himself to resent the 
 mine owner's sharp statements, as he knew he would 
 have and often had those of other men who had thus 
 offended him. Vignon was not a student of psychology, 
 but he guessed at a very powerful psychological fact 
 when he somehow realized it was the cool courage and 
 positiveness of the other, and physically smaller man 
 that had daunted him. Norton in no way had indicated 
 the slightest fear of him and even as he had wondered 
 why, Vignon had found himself unable to oppose the 
 other's courage. 
 
 He threw a coin on the bar. "The red Joe", he com- 
 manded. 
 
 Joe set a whiskey glass and imitation cut-glass de- 
 canter full of evil-looking red liquid on the bar, and Vig- 
 non helped himself to several burning drinks. 
 
 "Joe", he declared sneeringly and malevolently, "I'm
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 201 
 
 too damn good-natured that's the trouble with me. I 
 know my strength, an' it makes me good-natured. If I 
 hadn' been good-natured I'd a threw a guy out of his own 
 office a little while ago. I know my strength an' it makes 
 me good-natured. You get me? I'm too damn good- 
 natured." 
 
 He felt better. That is to say, his self-esteem had re- 
 turned, for there also had come to him the inspiring rec- 
 ollection that Tharny, the well-known mining man, was 
 back of him. Why, he'd go up and see Tharny right 
 now so help him, he would! That was the ticket see 
 Tharny, and then attend to one other bit of business he 
 had been neglecting all too long. 
 
 Tharny did not give Vignon a joyous welcome, nor 
 was he moved to enthusiasm by Vignon's somewhat 
 rambling talk and his final suggestion, which became 
 more emphatic all the time, that he would appreciate a 
 bit of an advance payment on the first one hundred dol- 
 lars he was to get. 
 
 "You ought not to have any money right now", said 
 Tharny. 
 
 "What do ya mean not now?" demanded Vignon 
 flaring up. 
 
 Tharny reached into his pocket and drew out a ten 
 dollar bill which he tossed over to Vignon and then made 
 a note of it on his blotter. 
 
 "You're a trump card Mr. Tharny a real trump", 
 declared Vignon folding the bill closely and pushing it 
 down into his pocket. Then with what he meant for 
 friendly jocularity, "Who do you want killed for this?" 
 
 Tharny looked up sharply. 
 
 "Say, Vignon, how is that League proposition coming 
 along have you started anything on it yet?" he asked. 
 
 Vignon leered at him and winked knowingly.
 
 202 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Leave it to me, Bo. By spring your friend, D. Wil- 
 liams, will think the League's agoin' all right, all 
 righto." 
 
 Tharny smashed his fist down on his desk, all his 
 wrath rushing out pell-mell and he was then not at all 
 the suave-spoken, carefully-groomed looking man. 
 
 "Damn Williams damn, damn him I'd like to 
 wring his miserable neck. He's no good and I'll show 
 him who he's up against. I'll get him !" 
 
 Then, as though realizing the spectacle he was afford- 
 ing the grinning Vignon, he ceased abruptly. 
 
 "I'm very busy right now, Vingon", he said, straight- 
 ening his tie and smoothing back his hair. "Come in 
 again I want to have some more good talks with you." 
 
 "Oh I'll be here don't worry", promised Vignon as 
 he prepared to leave. "I'll say one thing for you, Mr. 
 Tharny I think you're all right." 
 
 The visit to Tharny had been profitable, and it almost 
 banished from Vignon's mind the memory of the un- 
 pleasantness of Norton's cutting words and the sur- 
 prise he had experienced in finding himself unable to 
 resent Norton's statements. 
 
 He hailed a street car at the next corner and rode for 
 several blocks. A walk of a few blocks brought him to 
 a small shop over the entrance of which swung a wooden 
 boot, while fastened above the door was a modest sign 
 with the words KLEMNER SHOEMAKER. 
 
 Vignon entered with a swagger. Only the cobbler 
 was there and, strange to say, he was not industriously 
 pegging away. He sat at his accustomed place, peering 
 through his glasses at a letter in his hand and so ab- 
 sorbed was he that he did not note the new arrival. 
 
 "Well how's tricks, Klemner?" asked Vignon, after
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 203 
 
 he had stood for a moment looking down at the shoe- 
 maker. 
 
 Klemner slowly raised his head to regard him. He 
 nodded and then resumed his study of the letter. 
 
 "Look here Klemner", said Vignon a trifle belliger- 
 ently, "can that reading and get me. I'm here to make 
 a proposition and I want a straight answer." 
 
 Klemner bestirred himself as if for the first time 
 realizing Vignon's presence. 
 
 "Oh yes it's Vignon. How do, Vignon sit down." 
 
 Vignon drew a stool close to the shoemaker and 
 seated himself. Then as he spoke, he tapped the shoe- 
 maker on the knee. 
 
 "Look here, Klemner, I've come into a good thing. 
 I'm in solid with the big mining men now. I'm not 
 throwin' down any of my own propositions, but I'm in 
 right both ways just the same. I'm here to talk business 
 now. You like me you always acted right by me. I 
 want to join your family." 
 
 "My family?" repeated the shoemaker slowly. 
 
 "That's it me an' Millie. I want to be your son-in- 
 law. Let her quit stallin' around with that bird Chris 
 he's a joke." 
 
 Klemner looked down at the letter again. 
 
 "Millie's gone", he said. 
 
 Vignon straightened up in surprise. 
 
 "Gone?" 
 
 "Yes she and Chris. It wasn't at all necessary that 
 way. It didn' have to be that way." It was as if the 
 shoemaker was talking to himself. "They could have 
 stayed right here." 
 
 "What's all this guff?" demanded Vignon standing up 
 and leaning over the shoemaker. 
 
 The other did not look up.
 
 204 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "They Chris and Millie", he said slowly, "they got 
 married this morning and they've gone to Great Falls 
 where's he got a good job it says so in the letter and 
 they want me to forgive them and go over there to live 
 with them." 
 
 "What!" ejaculated Vignon starting back. "She an' 
 that fool went an' aloped on you An' what you goin' to 
 do 'bout it?" 
 
 Klemner was peering down at the letter. 
 
 "I'm an old man", he said slowly. "I guess I'll go 
 over to them. They'll have a nice little place. I won't 
 have to work no more it says so in the letter I can 
 have a little garden it says so. But it didn' have to be 
 that way. They want me though it says so " 
 
 "Ah, tell it to Sweeny!" exclaimed Vignon and 
 stamped out of the place, banging the door behind him. 
 Just outside the door he paused and leaned back against 
 the wall beside the cobwebby window. 
 
 "Now ain't this a hell of a world?" he demanded of 
 the Great Outside.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 CLEARING THE SLATE 
 
 A few weeks after his seance with Tharny, Bradshaw 
 was in Spokane and he had with him his very clever at- 
 torney and his general manager. 
 
 With mock solemnity he shook hands with his two 
 companions following their consultation at their hotel, 
 remarking, "Gentlemen be with me in thought and give 
 me all the sustaining absent treatment you can think of 
 if not too busy." 
 
 "Oh we'll bank on your coming through the ordeal 
 alive", remarked the attorney. "But really, Mr. Wil- 
 liams, if you desire me to go with you " 
 
 Dan waved the suggestion aside. 
 
 "You may have all the opportunity you want for 
 helping me beard the lion in his den later on both of 
 you." 
 
 Then he left them and his course took him to a big 
 office building of which two entire floors were devoted 
 to the business of a great mining syndicate, and where, 
 presently, he was waiting in a reception room while a 
 very matter-of-fact office boy was taking his card to an 
 inner sanctum. For all the apparent light-heartedness 
 with which Bradshaw had started on his mission from 
 the hotel, his thoughts were serious and all his fighting 
 instinct was at the surface. 
 
 In due time, the boy returned with the information
 
 206 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 that Dan was to follow him. 
 
 The way led down a private corridor and in response 
 to the boy's knock on a door, a hearty voice called out, 
 "Come in." 
 
 Dan had seen some business offices that he had 
 thought bordered on the luxurious, but never before had 
 he entered one that for unostentatious elegance equalled 
 this one. Its beautiful mahogany furniture was spot- 
 less. Its deep velvet rug of finest quality over a perfect 
 hardwood floor, had not the minutest stain. 
 
 Through Bradshaw's mind flashed the thought that 
 verily this was the finest lion's den on record. As for 
 the lion he was a robust, portly, smooth-shaved man 
 with cheeks of baby pinkness, but with about as keen a 
 pair of steel-gray eyes as ever warmed into thorough 
 affection, or chilled an adversary to the very marrow. 
 
 He arose, as Dan entered, and gave him a little nod. 
 He was smiling slightly and he still fingered Dan's card. 
 But there was nothing at all effusive in his greeting or 
 manner. 
 
 "Won't you be seated?" he invited courteously, and 
 Dan took a chair which directly faced the other as he 
 resumed his place in his ponderous swivel-chair behind 
 his unusually wide, flat-topped desk. 
 
 Bradshaw wasted no time in formalities. 
 
 "You're a busy man, Mr. Satterton", he began at 
 once, "and I appreciate your seeing me so quickly. I 
 have important business, too, calling me back home as 
 quickly as I can leave here. I've come to put some fair 
 and square facts before you as president of the syndi- 
 cate that has been trying to run me out of the Red 
 Flower gold district "and as the other held up a pro- 
 testing hand, "Yes, that's the straight of it you've been 
 trying to do all of that your syndicate has. And if it
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 207 
 
 hasn't, then it doubtless will be interested in getting these 
 facts anyhow." 
 
 "We've been proceeding in a thoroughly businesslike 
 way", the other man said in his velvety tone that some- 
 how suggested plenty of iron determination. Indeed 
 Bradshaw had very quickly sensed why this man was 
 head of a great and powerful syndicate. And though 
 Satterton was the concrete personification of the enemy, 
 which Dan heretofore always had thought of as "The 
 Syndicate", formless as to body, soulless and yet fear- 
 fully menacing to him, yet he did not feel any personal 
 antagonism against this man. Somehow he then and 
 there conceived the idea also that the other man likewise 
 respected him. 
 
 "Well, businesslike as you might think it", Bradshaw 
 returned steadily, "I have regarded it as nothing other 
 than the effort of a powerful syndicate to take by any 
 means any means, Mr. Satterton the property of an 
 individual it deemed immeasurably weaker meaning 
 myself." 
 
 "And your purpose in coming?" the other man said, 
 very palpably suggesting the laying of all cards on the 
 table. 
 
 Bradshaw leaned slightly forward, resting his hand 
 on the arm of his chair. "I refused your offer to buy 
 me out", he said. "I did not consider it an equitable 
 price. I don't mind saying that it would not have en- 
 abled me to liquidate my indebtedness at that time. I 
 made up my mind, and am still of the same mind, to fight 
 any and all efforts to force me to sell with the alterna- 
 tive of very tedious and very costly mining litigation. 
 I'll fight to the last ditch, Mr. Satterton. If I go down 
 in that fight should you force it on me, I'll go down with 
 flying colors and I don't think I'll go. If you mean to
 
 208 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 be as fair and square with me as you protest you are, as 
 you wrote to me last week you really mean to be, then 
 you'll heed my request. You'll send for Mr. Gerald 
 Tharny; have him meet me before yourself and your 
 board of directors, or any other officials of your syndicate 
 you may designate. I want to confront him before you, 
 submit my proofs to you, let you get the facts as they 
 really are while we both are present and I promise to 
 show him up." 
 
 "Your request is most unusual really extraordi- 
 nary", declared the other. "I don't believe I ever heard 
 of a similar instance." 
 
 "I agree it is unusual", returned Bradshaw. "But I 
 take the view that your syndicate, whatever its motives 
 and methods with regard to me, would not want to 
 plunge into anything that would be bootless for it. If 
 my proposition will result in the saving of much time, 
 aggravation and expense for your syndicate, as well as 
 to show the justness of my contention, you would con- 
 sider it advisable to give my idea due consideration, 
 would you not?" 
 
 Satterton swung around in his chair and seemingly 
 forgot all about his visitor as he gazed through a win- 
 dow, meanwhile reflectively stroking his chin. All at 
 once he swung back and turned the keenness of his gaze 
 on Dan. 
 
 "It's without precedent so far as I am concerned. 
 When we go into a fight, we go into it neither asking for 
 quarter nor giving it. And you ask us to put one of our 
 representatives on trial with you as the prosecuting at- 
 torney." 
 
 "I'm not asking for quarter, nor do I propose being 
 a prosecuting attorney", Bradshaw declared. "I want 
 you to get the facts, and the best way to get them is with
 
 BORN OF THE , CRUCIBLE 209 
 
 Tharny present and his answering some questions I 
 would like to ask him in your presence." 
 
 "I'll take the matter up with my directors", an- 
 nounced Satterton after a moment's pause. "Why do 
 you want Tharny here?" 
 
 "He is your representative in Montana and you have 
 left the handling of the matter which concerns me en- 
 tirely in his hands for investigation, indeed for much 
 action, and certainly you must have been actuated in all 
 your later moves against me by reason of his reports and 
 recommendations." 
 
 "Perhaps so", admitted the other. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Satterton, I'm not going to express myself 
 here and now as to what I think of Tharny. I want him 
 here to face me and my side of the case." 
 
 "What made you think I we, would give any con- 
 sideration to such a plan as you have suggested?" asked 
 Satterton with just the trace of a smile and a slight les- 
 sening of the steely quality of his eyes. 
 
 "The belief that if you had the real spirit of fair 
 play, you'd show it this way", answered Bradshaw can- 
 didly, and the other laughed frankly. 
 
 "Where are you staying?" he asked. 
 
 Bradshaw told him. 
 
 "I will give you our decision by "he looked at his 
 watch "say, five-thirty this afternoon." 
 
 "If such a meeting is arranged", Bradshaw said as 
 he rose, "I would want to bring my attorney and my gen- 
 tral manager with me." 
 
 Satterton, who also stood up, waved his hand indif- 
 ferently. "Oh, that would be for you to say, Mr. Wil- 
 liams", he remarked. 
 
 When Bradshaw returned to the hotel, he mapped 
 out some work for his manager in the way of arranging
 
 210 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 certain reports for quick use, and then he and his attor- 
 ney took a long walk. 
 
 "I guess I aroused old Satterton's curiosity more than 
 anything else", said Dan as they strolled along. "I count 
 on the unexpectedness of the thing to carry my point as 
 to the meeting." 
 
 As they walked back towards the hotel, Bradshaw 
 grew silent, though not for a moment nervous. Once he 
 remarked, "It's like waiting for a jury's verdict and it 
 really does mean a lot to me. I wouldn't like long drawn 
 out litigation. It's expensive and when you come right 
 down to bedrock basis, you never can anticipate a court 
 result, though I feel sure we'd have them licked to a 
 standstill if it's a fight they want." 
 
 Promptly at five-thirty, the telephone in Bradshaw's 
 room rang and he was at the instrument in an instant. 
 The conversation was brief, and then he hung up the 
 receiver and turned to the deeply interested lawyer and 
 manager. 
 
 "Well, gentlemen", he said with a smile, "Mr. Sat- 
 terton's private secretary begs to inform us that Mr. 
 Satterton has taken the matter up with his directors, the 
 syndicate's vice president and doubtless a few other of- 
 ficials, and we can come to his office at eleven day after 
 tomorrow morning prepared to enter into a discussion 
 of the matter. Mr. Gerald Tharny will be there. What 
 
 do you say to our going to a show tonight?" 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 A spacious directors' room with customary business- 
 like, long oaken table bordered with swivel-chairs 
 President Satterton presiding in the officer's place. At 
 his right, the syndicate's vice president at his left, 
 Tharny. Two directors occupied places at the right of 
 the table three directors, the syndicate's treasurer,
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 211 
 
 statistician and chief engineer at the left side. Two 
 secretaries were at a little side desk. 
 
 It was an impressive setting and certainly it looked 
 businesslike to Bradshaw, who had the place at the end 
 of the table opposite Satterton, with his lawyer at his 
 right and his manager at his left, and several leather 
 document-cases on the table before him. 
 
 "Gentlemen, no need of going into detail in explain- 
 ing the purpose of this conference", Satterton was say- 
 ing. "We all are thoroughly conversant with its purpose 
 now. Mr. Williams, are you ready to proceed?" 
 
 Dan rose. 
 
 "I am." 
 
 And proceed he did, speaking easily, earnestly, while 
 the officials of the syndicate leaned back to regard him 
 and listen closely ; Tharny with a slight curl of the lip ; 
 the secretaries at the little side desk taking notes. 
 
 Quickly he sketched the offer that some months be- 
 fore had come to him from the syndicate via Tharny ; his 
 refusal of it; the appearance of an engineering crew on 
 property adjoining claims next to Dan's main property 
 and on which claims he held options of word from 
 Tharny as to the syndicate's claim to options on the prop- 
 erty adjoining his option-controlled claims; of the alle- 
 gation that the syndicate believed itself to have apex 
 rights which would give them vein rights in those claims 
 which Bradshaw had optioned ; of the more than hint of 
 litigation and other details, technical, very involved to 
 the layman, but perfectly clear in purport to all present. 
 
 "The thing is this, gentlemen", Bradshaw went on, 
 " I can't be bluffed that way. I am free to confess that 
 I believe your entire information of the matter has come 
 to you from your Montana representative, Mr. Tharny. 
 I don't know what he has reported to you or to your
 
 212 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 chief engineer, but I do believe that you have been given 
 great cause to labor under a misapprehension." 
 
 Tharny half rose. "I " he began. 
 
 "Just a moment let Mr. Williams finish", interrup- 
 ted Satterton. 
 
 "I am not going to mince words", continued Brad- 
 shaw. "If I had not thought you the syndicate, under 
 a misapprehension, I would not have ventured to come 
 here. Now gentlemen, I am no child to be bully-ragged. 
 I can go into court and give you the fight of your lives. 
 The apex claims are all rot. Don't you suppose that 
 when I secured options on the ground adjoining mine, I 
 also could have got options on the ground you optioned 
 later? I obtained the privilege to make a thorough ex- 
 amination of that ground. My engineers informed me 
 that there was nothing worth while following there. 
 Your engineer up there as much as admitted it to me 
 he is thoroughly honest as well as capable. His reports 
 went to Mr. Tharny, and what Mr. Tharny reported to- 
 you, I, of course, have no way of knowing definitely. I 
 only can suspect." 
 
 "Will you permit a question?" interrupted Satterton. 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "What leads you to the use of the word 'suspect' ?" 
 
 Bradshaw looked steadily at Satterton. 
 
 "A representative of Mr. Tharny an attorney, I be- 
 lieve he poses as called on me, and his tacit proposition 
 was nothing short of blackmail!" 
 
 Every official of the syndicate, Satterton included, ex- 
 cepting Tharny, sat up straight. The two secretaries at 
 the little side desk, looked up sharply. 
 
 "I knew his syndicate to be so busied with other big 
 projects that it left the handling of the entire matter in 
 Mr. Tharny's hands. When I determined to come here
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 213 
 
 for this conference, I purposely wanted him present. I 
 knew I thought it would simplify matters. I could have 
 settled this matter with Mr. Tharny through his attor- 
 ney, for a financial consideration. I gave that shyster 
 three minutes to get out of my office. Now, recurring to 
 the litigation with which I am threatened it does not 
 frighten me in the least. I have here all the engineer- 
 ing reports, the certified copies of my own option rights 
 as well as the offer of option rights on the very ground 
 you claim or rather Mr. Tharny claims to have secured 
 options." 
 
 "You mean to say you have option rights on the land 
 that I got options on?" demanded Tharny. 
 
 "I do", replied Bradshaw. "And from a different 
 party." 
 
 "So that would bring that land into dispute as to own- 
 ership", commented Satterton. 
 
 "Exactly", Dan informed him. "There would be 
 counter-litigation on that point too." 
 
 "Why, you couldn't get a clear abstract to your own 
 main property", Tharny burst out. "There's no record 
 of a transfer to you from the original locator or to any- 
 one else." 
 
 "I would promise to clear that point all right if I 
 sold, or for any other good reason", Bradshaw said with 
 a smile. 
 
 Dan's lawyer leaned forward and whispered some- 
 thing to him. 
 
 "I want to say, that while I still hold the option from 
 the man who doubtless owns that land on which you 
 claim options from another source", Dan went on, "and 
 while I believe the man from whom I secured my option 
 could establish priority of location, that, nevertheless, 
 would require much more litigation for you. Gentlemen,
 
 214 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 if you will pull out of this thing entirely, I will, to save 
 all further dispute, take over your options on that land 
 at a ten percent increase on what you paid for them." 
 
 Tharny jumped up. 
 
 "This is preposterous, and allegations have been made 
 here that " 
 
 Bradshaw was still standing and he leveled a finger 
 at Tharny. 
 
 "I'm not through with you yet. There are a few 
 questions I want to ask you." He looked at Satterton. 
 "I have your permission to ask Mr. Tharny a few ques- 
 tions?" 
 
 "Yes go ahead", assented Satterton. "Ask direct 
 questions, Mr. Williams, but let there be no quibbling or 
 merely controversial argument." 
 
 "Did the engineer in charge of the work on the land 
 you say you optioned near mine, send his reports to 
 you?" asked Bradshaw of Tharny. 
 
 "He certainly did", was the answer. 
 
 "And no duplicates came to the main office here?" 
 
 "No. I was quite capable of forwarding the reports 
 after I received them." 
 
 "That's all." 
 
 Then Bradshaw detailed his interview with Tharny 
 in the latter's office at Butte. Addressing Tharny 
 directly, he said : 
 
 "I know you to have had a call from one of the most 
 despicable agitators in the entire northwestern mining 
 region an agitator who would stoop to any low trick, 
 and while I am aware that he might call unsolicitedly at 
 any man's office, yet I do not put it past you to have gone 
 so far as to conspire with him to try to cause trouble on 
 my property for your own purpose." 
 
 It was a random shot, but at any rate Tharny flushed
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 215 
 
 and then went pale. "It's not so not so", he muttered 
 defiantly. 
 
 Then Satterton took a hand in the proceedings. 
 
 Later, other officials of the syndicate did so. The 
 vice-president was a quiet-spoken man and his question- 
 ing of Dan, the lawyer and the manager, was very 
 shrewd and very searching. 
 
 Next, Dan's attorney made an excellent statement 
 pointed, plain, sincere. 
 
 Finally Satterton began to draw the meeting to an 
 end. 
 
 "Will you leave your reports, your certified option 
 copies and whatever other data you care to have us con- 
 sider, with us for our study ?" he asked. 
 
 "Certainly", replied Dan promptly. 
 
 "Would you, gentlemen", and Satterton nodded at 
 Dan and his two companions, "mind retiring to my 
 office?" 
 
 The three men rose. 
 
 An hour later, Satterton opened the door giving ac- 
 cess from the directors' room to his office, and paused in 
 the doorway. 
 
 "Gentlemen we are not prepared to give you our de- 
 cision now. Will it be agreeable to you to appear here 
 at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning?" Then by way of 
 gratuitous information, "We are consulting with Mr. 
 Tharny and we wish to get in touch with the engineer 
 who was in charge of the work for Mr. Tharny. Mr. 
 Tharny says he happens to be in Butte right now and 
 we can question him via long-distance telephone." 
 
 At the appointed hour the following morning, all the 
 interested parties were on hand and in their places. All 
 the reports Dan had submitted, he found neatly folded 
 on the table before him.
 
 216 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Satterton rose, cleared his throat, fixed his eye- 
 glasses on his nose and referred to a page of notes in 
 his hand. Then looking over his glasses at Bradshaw, 
 he gave the syndicate's findings, tersely and briefly, 
 while Bradshaw's manager held his breath. 
 
 "We a we will accept your offer", he said and sat 
 down. 
 
 A smile broke over Dan's face and the lawyer, too, 
 was smiling, while the manager drew a deep breath. 
 
 "Gentlemen, I appreciate your findings", Bradshaw 
 said. His heart was singing in him. He had won ! for 
 a victory it certainly had been. 
 
 As they all stood up and mingled, Satterton spoke to 
 Dan. 
 
 "Mr. Williams, can I see you in my office?" 
 
 "Certainly", said Dan and accompanied the president 
 there. 
 
 Satterton seated himself at his desk, Dan taking the 
 chair at the side opposite the president. And now Sat- 
 terton was smiling not even a hint of steely determi- 
 nation in his eyes. 
 
 "Let's smoke", invited Satterton producing a box of 
 cigars, passing it over to Dan and helping himself. 
 
 "Mr. Williams", the older man went on, "I'm a great 
 admirer of nerve, and you're nervy." 
 
 Dan smiled at the praise, and Satterton continued. 
 
 "I don't mind letting you in on a few details. Don't 
 run away with the notion that this syndicate is a phil- 
 anthropic institution. It isn't. But we are on the 
 square", and he straightened his shoulders. "When Mr. 
 Tharny suggested the purchase of your property, that 
 appealed to us. Some of our best Coeur d'Alene proper- 
 ties were down, and we needed a going mine at once. 
 Your property looked like a life-saver. Mr. Tharny's plan
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 217 
 
 as to buying it seemed to come so pat that we gave him 
 carte blanche as to acquiring it. But then soon after 
 that our Coeur d'Alene properties were reopened full 
 blast and we began getting into Alaska very, very deeply. 
 We are busy with some mighty big projects, Williams." 
 
 "And so you could afford to let me escape", remarked 
 Dan with a smile. 
 
 "Well", said the other slowly, "I wouldn't just put it 
 that way. We don't want anything through chicanery, 
 I'll tell you that. Really, I think you owe us your appre- 
 ciation, Williams, for gathering up those loose options 
 for you. Now that you've got them they may save you a 
 lot of bother in future. Anyhow, they make your prop- 
 erty practically litigation-proof as to vein rights. You 
 see that, don't you ?" 
 
 "You remember I offered you a ten percent increase 
 on them", remarked Dan. 
 
 Satterton threw back his head and laughed. Then 
 he straightened up and looked closely at Bradshaw. 
 
 "If we made a proposition to you would you con- 
 sider coming in with us?" he asked. 
 
 "I surely thank you for your implied expression of 
 confidence", Bradshaw replied, "but I'd like to keep on 
 working this thing of my own through along lines I've 
 mapped out." 
 
 "Then all the luck in the world to you, young man", 
 said Satterton of the Syndicate. 
 
 But there was one thing Satterton did not tell Dan. 
 The latter heard of it later from his lawyer who had 
 obtained it from inside sources. 
 
 The "consulting" with Tharny of which Satterton 
 had spoken the day before meant as grilling an exami- 
 nation for that individual as it ever falls to the lot of 
 an unworthy witness to receive.
 
 218 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 At the end of two hours of cross-examining, Tharny 
 had been reduced to the stage which might best have 
 been described as absolutely wilted. 
 
 Then, for some hours more, there had been a search- 
 ing examination of Bradshaw's reports, followed by a 
 long-distance telephonic talk with the engineer who had 
 submitted his reports to Tharny. 
 
 Subsequently, Satterton had requested that Tharny 
 come to his office the following afternoon. 
 
 Dan and his two associates were on their way back 
 to Montana when Tharny entered Satterton's sanctum. 
 And Satterton was a man all of cold steeliness then. 
 
 "Gerald", he said with the crispness of brittle ice in 
 his tone, "your father was my best friend. I gave you 
 a splendid chance. I'm through so are you so far as 
 this syndicate is concerned. Here is a check for five 
 thousand dollars and a new man will take over our 
 affairs in Montana. 
 
 Tharny mechanically folded the check and placed it 
 in his wallet. 
 
 "So you're all through with me?" he asked. 
 
 "Absolutely." 
 
 "Oh, I guess I can get along", said Tharny impu- 
 dently. "There's money to be made in the promoting 
 game the suckers are not all dead." He stood up, his 
 manner still impudent. "And I might as well tell you 
 right now that you never could have beaten Williams in 
 court. I hate him all the way through, and I'd have liked 
 to have seen you ruin him, but he held all the trumps this 
 time. I thought I could run a good bluff on him." 
 
 "It looked like a possible chance for you to squeeze a 
 little plunder out of him, eh? Well, I'm mighty glad you 
 barked up the wrong tree", and Satterton looked con- 
 temptuously at Tharny. "The Syndicate owes him a vote
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 219 
 
 of thanks for showing you up. This Syndicate certainly 
 objects to such methods as yours." 
 
 "I don't suppose the high and mighty Syndicate would 
 object to my going where I want to", said Tharny with 
 sneering sarcasm. 
 
 "Gerald", returned Satterton with subdued empha- 
 sis, "for all I care you can go to hades !" 
 
 But when, as he left Spokane, Tharny took stock of 
 his situation he was not so complacent. He was heavily 
 involved financially and the five thousand dollars he had 
 received from the Syndicate, would not carry him far. 
 True, he might venture more deeply into mining promo- 
 tion, but it might be precarious if followed along the 
 lines he most favored. He narrowed his eyes and 
 smiled craftily as another thought came to banish his ap- 
 prehension. 
 
 There was Mary Norton.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 IN SPRINGTIME 
 
 The following spring came early, and when the Nor- 
 tons, returning to their home at Butte, had time to look 
 about them, they found ample evidence of a rapidly com- 
 ing summer. 
 
 "Talk about feeling the call of the wild", declared 
 Norton to his sister at the breakfast table one morning. 
 "If ever I wanted to get out into the hills, now is the 
 time. I never knew the real summer season to come so 
 quickly around here as it has this year." 
 
 "And where does your Highness intend going?" 
 asked his sister, with the casualness of one devoting 
 earnest consideration to half a grape-fruit. 
 
 "I haven't mapped out an exact itinerary as yet", 
 her brother replied. "I had rather intended to start 
 from Anaconda and go westward. I want to see what's 
 doing up in that region, and I may go for some distance 
 over the ranges there." 
 
 "Quite an ambitious journey", said Mary. 
 
 "And there is no mountain trip can beat it", Norton 
 rejoined enthusiastically. "It would be a bit too rough 
 for you, Mary, but it's one that our friend, Walton, ought 
 to take with me. If he would write half of what such a 
 trip would show him, he would have a splendid account." 
 
 "Write it yourself", said his sister half-banteringly.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 221 
 
 "Don't think I wouldn't be willing to tackle it, young 
 lady", he replied. 
 
 "Oh, as for that, you would tackle most anything and 
 come off the victor too", she said with a smile that 
 brought an answering one from him, for to see the 
 beauty of Mary Norton's smile and not respond with one 
 would be admission of an insufferable grouch. 
 
 "No I'm not in the writing line", he stated, taking a 
 cigar from his pocket. "But if I could write I might say 
 some interesting things about the afternoon view from the 
 eastern slope of the Blue Eyed Nellie hill west of Ana- 
 conda, with the marvelous Rockies on the south one of 
 them, famous mountain that it is, like the semicircular 
 crater of a gigantic volcano, the nearer side crumbled 
 away and the remaining edge tipped with snow the year 
 around; the fertile valley with its winding stream and 
 little silvery lagoons here and there ; with the white rib- 
 bon of road along the northern hill-sides from Anaconda, 
 away on the east, right up and along the foot of the Blue 
 Eyed Nellie hill itself. And the view from there at 
 night! Walton should see it. And then the country 
 farther along!" he paused to light his cigar "It all is 
 an inspiration. I wish I could tell you exactly how it is 
 as I have seen it." 
 
 "Why, I think you are doing splendidly", his sister 
 declared. "If you would write it down just as you have 
 seen it, you would be writing a veritable prose poem." 
 
 He smiled fondly at her. 
 
 "Flatterer!" he exclaimed. "But what a charming 
 flatterer." 
 
 "And you think you will continue on for a much 
 longer distance than that?" she asked. 
 
 "That is my idea", he replied. "One of the mining 
 magazines had a very interesting article last week about
 
 222 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 the M. N. Mine over on the other slope of the range out 
 that way, and I want to take a look at it. I understand 
 that some remarkably good gold ore is being mined 
 there. I've been informed that D. Williams who is in 
 charge of the mine, has returned from California and is 
 up there now, and so I think this would be a very good 
 time to go over and see him and the property. There 
 might be an opportunity to become interested over in 
 that section. I've always had faith in it." 
 
 He arose and his sister did likewise to accompany 
 him to the vestibule, where he picked up and drew on 
 automobile gauntlets. 
 
 "Your journey may be going to be somewhat rough", 
 she said, "but still I would have invited myself to go 
 along if it were not that Margaret is due this week." 
 
 "That's a fact I must admit I'd forgotten", he re- 
 marked. "I suppose there would be no use extending an 
 invitation to Walton to go along with me. Doubtless he 
 knows she is coming, and it would take more than a 
 trip into the hills, however delightful, to entice him away 
 from Butte at this time." 
 
 "I rather think that is right", observed his sister. 
 
 "Now look here, young lady", said Norton placing 
 his hands on her shoulders and looking down at her, "I 
 don't pretend to be able to pry into the mysteries of the 
 feminine mind nor to judge the secret theories of a 
 woman's heart, but I do know that the whims of woman- 
 kind have raised the have made earth a very part of 
 the Inferno for many a good man, and all done so inno- 
 cently, so inadvertantly and also so charmingly. What 
 I am getting at is that Margaret Hanlon well, my judg- 
 ment is that Walton is the sort of man who only has one 
 real affair of the heart in his life, and that one truly is 
 enough to last such a man for his entire existence. I
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 223 
 
 don't usually notice such things, but I would have to be 
 entirely bereft of my powers of observation not to notice 
 Walton's regard for Margaret." 
 
 "Oh, cleverest and keenest of all brothers !" exclaimed 
 Mary, smiling up at him with the sidelong look of a 
 charm which he, as well as any other man, quickly rec- 
 ognized. "And have you really seen all that too?" 
 
 "Do you think it's right?" he asked. 
 
 "And why not?" 
 
 "Of course, it's none of my business", he said hastily, 
 "but I do like Walton. He's a real man and if Margaret 
 is trifling with him, I think she Oh hang it, Mary, he's 
 not the kind of man who ought to be picked out for that 
 sort of thing." 
 
 Norton took his hat from the rack and stood with one 
 hand on the door knob. 
 
 "Why, I'm sure, DeWitt, I don't know that Margaret 
 is deliberately trying to mislead him. I don't know that 
 Margaret thinks any more of him than she does of any 
 other good friend. She is interested in his career, but 
 that might be in an entirely impersonal way." 
 
 "Well, I may be wrong", rejoined her brother, "but I 
 shouldn't imagine that a woman could show the interest 
 in a man's career that she seems to have in Walton's, 
 without really having more than just a Platonic regard 
 for him, or at any rate making him think she has." 
 
 Then he kissed her and left. 
 
 Mary returned to the breakfast table and seated 
 there, rested her elbow on the table, her chin in her 
 cupped hand, and gazed abstractedly ahead of her. 
 Finally, as she rang for the maid, she remarked to her- 
 self: 
 
 "Well, I'm sure I don't know." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Bradshaw, returning from a joyous sojourn with
 
 224 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Uncle Sim and Aunt Ruth in California, the happier 
 since he was able to leave them in far better circum- 
 stances than they ever before had enjoyed, stopped over 
 in Butte to see Walton, and arranged to be on his way 
 to his mine the following morning. 
 
 "Had the time of my life", he told the newspaperman- 
 "Talk about the prodigal son returning home what I 
 wrote you about the reception I got didn't half tell it. 
 And, I certainly enjoyed to the very limit the veranda in 
 the evening time and the silvery moonlight and the roses 
 and all the other features that help to make the place so 
 delightful. I couldn't get the Aunt and Uncle to move 
 out of their cottage to a larger and more pretentious one, 
 but finally Aunt Ruth consented to my hiring a maid for 
 her, though the day I did that, Aunt Ruth fussed around 
 declaring that, in consequence, she wouldn't have a thing 
 to keep her busy in future. Yet that evening on the 
 veranda, when the dear old man was pottering around 
 in the garden, she put her arm around my neck with that 
 rare and sweet affection with which she had won my boy- 
 hood's heart. She drew my head down until my cheek 
 was close beside hers and I felt unworthy and insigni- 
 ficant and if ever the thought came to me that all the 
 strivings and attainments of man are unimportant and 
 unlovely compared to the love of a good woman, it did 
 then. Dear Aunt Ruth never had chick of her own, but 
 she's the through and through mother, with mother 
 knowledge and love and understanding. She had me for 
 years and I know I was enough to take the place of a 
 dozen children in causing her concern and work, I 
 mean. Then, on another day, I went with Uncle Sim up 
 to the graves on the hill-side where my grandfather, the 
 sturdy pioneer whose adventures I lived in my boy 
 dreams and playings, and where my grandmother and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 225 
 
 the father and mother I never knew, are sleeping. I 
 wanted to arrange for some adornment of those hal- 
 lowed couches, but I saw that Uncle Sim's ideas about 
 it were right. He said no ornamentation could begin to 
 equal the noble trees guarding those last resting places, 
 and nothing could take the place of the flowers growing 
 over and around that sacred spot, as if protecting the 
 sleepers with a gentle covering. Granite would shut 
 them away too much, as it were, from the flowers, the 
 trees, the song of the birds and the blue sky. We ar- 
 ranged for proper monuments and the care of the graves 
 which Uncle Sim supervises so conscientiously. 
 
 At Walton's request, Bradshaw told him of various 
 other details of his visit, and he pleased the newspaper- 
 man by telling him of the regard the good Uncle and 
 Aunt had for him, too. 
 
 "They've taken you right into the family", said Dan. 
 Then he spoke in a more serious tone. "I've come back, 
 John, determined to push on to greater, many times 
 greater things. I am anxious to get back to the mine 
 and go on with my work there." He laughed. "I'll ad- 
 mit I have a boyish desire to enjoy the new bungalow 
 there. There is something connected with it that I 
 wanted to wait until now to tell you about. It has a 
 feature entirely for you a writing room, a study all 
 your own." 
 
 "For me?" asked Walton delighted. 
 
 "You bet!" exclaimed Bradshaw heartily. "You can 
 come up there and write your head off. The place is all 
 electric lighted you know we use electric power all 
 through the mine now. The bungalow has every possible 
 convenience all I've been telling you of it can't do jus- 
 tice to the subject, though I know it will have surprises 
 for me, too, for Paddy Skiff and his 'Missus' and my
 
 226 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 artistic little Japanese, Nip, were superintending the fin- 
 ishing touches and the installation of the fixtures and 
 furniture I had ordered, while I was in California. The 
 bungalow is not far from the old cabin. You remember 
 that old cabin, don't you John?" 
 
 "Well rather", declared the newspaperman. "That 
 early winter visit I had up there with you was really an 
 enjoyable experience." 
 
 "When can you get away to come up there again?" 
 asked Bradshaw. 
 
 "Soon, I hope, though, as usual, this is a busy season 
 for me", replied Walton. 
 
 "Tip me the word any time and the place is yours", 
 declared the miner. "My good and faithful retainer, 
 Nip, hasn't half enough to do as it is. So hurry along." 
 
 "What is a man with anarchistic principles buried 
 deep in him doing with an artistic or any other kind of a 
 retainer?" queried the writer. "This is getting to be a 
 funny world." 
 
 Walton liked to joke with his friend because, to his 
 own delight, Bradshaw's responses were keenly in kind. 
 They understood each other thoroughly. 
 
 "Of course, what you say of there being anarchy in 
 me is gross slander", retorted Bradshaw. "Yet after all, 
 my captious friend, the best way to reform a radical, 
 perhaps, might be to give him luxuries." 
 
 Walton laughed. 
 
 "That's a radicalism worthy of my friend, Bradshaw 
 beg pardon, Williams", he said. 
 
 "You won't have to beg pardon on that score much 
 longer", Dan informed him. "Soon I shall be getting 
 back to the use of the Bradshaw part of my name, be- 
 cause it is necessary. Thus far I have kept scrupulously 
 out of newspapers so as not to become advertised, and
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 227 
 
 my chief office man has made the contracts, while Paddy 
 Skiff has supervised most of the hiring of men, but my 
 interests are spreading, and I guess I'll have to subdue 
 the Williams portion of the title to its initial status, and 
 let Daniel Bradshaw blossom out into the sunlight once 
 more." 
 
 "Whenever that is done, then welcome to our city, 
 Dan Bradshaw!" exclaimed Walton. 
 
 "By the way, John", went on the miner. "I want to 
 leave a bit more money here for you to use in fixing up 
 Crunch when you get a chance." 
 
 Walton shook his head and sighed. 
 
 "I've not only fixed him up, dressed him up and 
 pointed out the course of righteousness to him on my 
 own account a dozen times, but by reason of your gener- 
 osity as well. However, I'll be glad to try it again." 
 
 He regarded Bradshaw with the drooping of his eye- 
 lids that gave him a quizzical look, characteristic of his 
 semi- joking moods. 
 
 "Did you ever try figuring out the pathway of a 
 whirlwind?" he asked.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 THE M. N. 
 
 Proceeding through the picturesque valleys and 
 over the always interesting mountain lands west of Ana- 
 conda, DeWitt Norton and the three men with him made 
 steady enough progress, though pausing at each impor- 
 tant district. Riding horses specially adapted for such 
 touring, and with two pack horses laden with complete 
 camp equipment, they enjoyed every moment "of their 
 outing. The men with Norton were from his own or- 
 ganization and as loyal to him for their liking of the man 
 as because of the positions they had in his employ. One 
 was from his general office and two from his mining 
 force. They wanted no cook or camp tenders, for these 
 men had been on outing trips many times before. They 
 knew how to make camp in expert fashion and they 
 knew camp culinary art. Norton, himself, took his turn 
 at cooking with all the relish of the man who knows 
 camp life and enjoys every feature of it. When the 
 others told him his flapjacks were good, he seemed as 
 well pleased as if he just had been informed that a 
 promising new ore lead had been found in one of his 
 mining properties. That was the kind of a man he was 
 it was a good index to his character. 
 
 There are such men in the West today, even though 
 many of the mannerisms and democracies of Pioneer 
 days are memories rather than facts now. Yet the vir-
 
 BORN OF THE .CRUCIBLE 229 
 
 ility and the ways of the Pioneers have always been too 
 important a portion of the fabric of the West ever to 
 be anything less than a vital part of it. There always 
 will be the Western man, and he has a versatility with 
 nothing of artfulness about it. He is at home roughing 
 it in the hills he lies down in peace and comfort beside 
 his campfire after a day's hard riding. He is miner and 
 woodsman and reader of the language of the trail. And 
 he revels in things of culture. He knows and under- 
 stands the very best of paintings and other works of art. 
 He makes an interesting study and not a habit of liter- 
 ature. He studies and understands the messages of far 
 distant countries he may visit. He is as much at ease 
 trying to master the intricacies of a Buddhist temple as 
 he is on the peak of a Rocky mountain range. He has 
 just as much sureness and is equally at home in a fash- 
 ionable eastern drawing room as in the depths of a west- 
 ern mine. The music of the wind through the pines and 
 of grand opera alike are known to and understood by 
 him. He is the true, adaptable, red-blooded American. 
 Where he comes from there is no provincialism. Often 
 the man from the East, the man from the South, the 
 man from the Middle-west can be told on the instant. 
 Perhaps so can the man from the West, but not by reason 
 of any mannerisms of speech, of action or viewpoint, but 
 by that intangible yet emphatic strength, eye-to-eye 
 look, directness, good-natured firmness like a velvet- 
 covered rock. 
 
 The Norton party rambled over hills and moun- 
 tains, and saw entrancing views in morning, afternoon 
 and at evening. They stood amazed at the marvelous 
 sunsets that turned skyline over the mountains and high 
 heavens into amazing color combinations. They boated 
 on little lakes set like water jems among regal moun-
 
 230 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 tains. They fished in willow-bordered streams. They 
 rode by moonlight along mountain highways that led 
 under trees, over hillocks and beside steep grades, with 
 the stars so agleam as, seemingly, to cover the world 
 about them with an iridescent star-dust. Their 
 errant fancies then could have full play. Every tree- 
 arched stretch of road, with moonlight wavering through 
 the branches, might be a carefully prepared highway 
 straight to looming, battlemented castle that in daylight 
 was a high and grim cliff. And when they rode in moon- 
 light near a lake high up in the mountain woodland 
 country, there came to them a warmed breath of zephyr 
 bearing a tang of the water so that they seemed near- 
 ing the shore of a land of enchantments with all the 
 peoples of romance busied in romantic careers about 
 them and the gaining of the very next park-like rise 
 promising to disclose to them a wide-reaching sea of 
 gently rolling silver. 
 
 And from all available places en route, Norton tele- 
 phoned to his sister at Butte telling of the party's 
 progress. 
 
 So at length they came to that slope of mountain 
 range down which they were to take their way to the 
 M. N. mine. Even before they reached it, they had a 
 splendid view of it from the summit. Casual inspection 
 at that distance showed its completeness of equipment 
 to the extent which its development warranted. There 
 was a trimness, a compactness about its surface struc- 
 tures, an efficient-appearing, methodical arrangement of 
 its powerfully built steel gallows frame and hoisting 
 plant, ore bins and mill, as well as other surface details, 
 that could not do otherwise than please so well versed a 
 mining-man as DeWitt Norton. 
 
 The mine boarding-house, flanked by two rows of
 
 BORN OF THE -CRUCIBLE 231 
 
 small, neat frame houses, stood among the trees on a 
 more level shoulder of mountain-side like a miniature 
 hamlet in a most pleasing setting of woodland. And, in 
 truth, outside the confines of the mine yard, it was evi- 
 dent that care had been taken not to disturb too much of 
 the mountain and forest attractiveness that had been 
 there before the hidden ore treasure had been uncovered, 
 excepting, of course, where clearings had been made for 
 new workings, where roadways had been cut through 
 and trestles built for aerial tramways. 
 
 As Norton and his men wound down the pathways 
 among the trees, he commented on the scene that had 
 been disclosed to them. 
 
 "Whoever planned it all out knew his business", he 
 declared. "The mine yard arrangement is fine. There 
 is no chance for lost motion there. The main plant and 
 the ore bins and the timber-framing mill and the big 
 mine dump are in just the right locations." 
 
 As they approached nearer the mine, the usual evi- 
 dences of mining activity so well known to Norton and 
 the others with him, came to them like a friendly wel- 
 coming voice. They dismounted at the small building, 
 where a sign over the door read: "Office M. N. Mine." 
 
 "I suppose that M. N. stands for 'Montana Notion' 
 or something like that", remarked one of Norton's men. 
 
 "Or perhaps, 'My Notion' ", said Norton. 
 
 The young man in charge of the office informed them 
 that D. Williams was out inspecting work on a new claim 
 he had acquired nearby, but even then was expected back. 
 And as they waited, Norton put in a long-distance call 
 for his sister. In fact, they had not long to wait before 
 a close-bearded, well-built, corduroy-suited, blue-shirted 
 and booted man, with stiff -brimmed hat of cowboy style 
 tilted a bit down over his eyes, arrived and the office
 
 232 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 man in charge told Norton, in an aside, that D. Williams 
 had come. 
 
 Norton immediately went forward. 
 
 "Mr. Williams?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes", said the new arrival. 
 
 "I am DeWitt Norton of Butte", Norton informed 
 him as they shook hands. 
 
 "I knew that", the other said with a smile; "I am 
 very glad to see you here." 
 
 Then Norton introduced his three companions to Dan 
 who, in turn, courteously presented his visitors to his 
 office force. 
 
 "And now you and your friends", he said addressing 
 Norton, "must come up to the bungalow as my guests. I 
 insist on your making it your headquarters." 
 
 Though Norton protested that he and his party had 
 ample camping equipment and did not want to incon- 
 venience their host, desiring from him only the privilege 
 of a location where they could pitch their camp, Brad- 
 shaw would not take that as an answer, but quietly and 
 firmly insisted on their coming with him. Mounting 
 their horses, and with Bradshaw leading the way on his, 
 they proceeded along a wide and well made roadway that 
 wound in and out among the thickly set trees. When 
 they had arrived out of sight and almost out of sound of 
 the mine workings, they suddenly emerged into a widely 
 cleared place in the midst of which stood Bradshaw's 
 bungalow, an ample dwelling with wide-sweeping roof 
 planes and extensive, vine-shaded veranda from which 
 the view was wonderful. On the side nearest them they 
 could see the broad, huge stone chimney of the fireplace. 
 The clearing in front of the bungalow was more in the 
 nature of a well kept lawn and there were carefully 
 tended flower beds. At the rear of the house were rows
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 233 
 
 of a vegetable garden in full culture, and beyond that a 
 poultry yard. Within the fringe of trees at the farther 
 side stood a big, log stable and several sheds. 
 
 "A dandy place", declared Norton enthusiastically as 
 they paused to survey the scene. 
 
 "And complete as it could be made", said Bradshaw 
 with a smile. "It's really new to me, too, for it was just 
 being completed and otherwise being made ready for the 
 furnishings I had ordered for it when I left for Cali- 
 fornia a few weeks ago. But my foreman, Paddy Skiff, 
 and his good wife, who conducts the boarding house at 
 the mine, gave it kind attention and, with Nip, the pre- 
 siding genius of the place, arranged the fixtures and fur- 
 niture and had the garden fixed up and attended to 
 various other details so that I found the place just about 
 this way when I returned. Nip really did well for I did 
 not have to rearrange much of the furnishings to suit 
 my own taste. My original cabin is over among the 
 trees there", and he pointed to one side. "I am preserv- 
 ing that as a memento. I had the stable and sheds put 
 up some time ago because, though now the roadway to 
 town is good and I am planning on having a garage put 
 up and an automobile installed, I have to use horses for 
 going up and down the mountain roads and trails that 
 would be too dangerous for machines." 
 
 They were continuing on their way to the front of 
 the house, when around a corner of it came dashing an 
 Airedale frantic with joy at the return of its master. 
 Also there strolled into view, stopping now and then to 
 munch grass, a small, gray burro. 
 
 "There", said Bradshaw pointing to the burro, "conies 
 the most privileged pensioner on the place. That is Don 
 Quixote who came with me on my first prospecting trip 
 into these hills. All he has to do now is eat and sleep
 
 234 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 and he even has the right to walk all over the lawn, much 
 to Nip's disgust." 
 
 When they reached the front steps, a man came run- 
 ning from the stable to take the horses, while on the top 
 step stood a bowing, smiling little Japanese in immacu- 
 late white duck suit. 
 
 "If there is anything you want and don't see, ask 
 Nip", said Bradshaw waving a hand at Nip, who grinned 
 and bowed the more. 
 
 The visitors sighed with contentment the moment 
 they entered the bungalow. 
 
 A wide doorway opened from the bench-provided 
 veranda directly into the living room that extended en- 
 tirely across the front of the house and was lighted by 
 big, double windows. Rugs covered the room's hardwood 
 floor and there were big, easy chairs and settees of 
 leather and wicker. The big library table in the center 
 was strewn with magazines and held smoker's articles. 
 Much of the right end was taken up by the fireplace of 
 roughly hewn stone, while at the opposite end stood a 
 billiard table. A pianola-piano and its record cabinet 
 were against the wall opposite the front door and be- 
 tween the archway that opened into the dining room and 
 a door that gave access to a hallway. A chandelier in 
 the form of wide-spreading antlers, with each prong tip 
 an incandescent light bulb, was pendent from the center 
 of the beamed ceiling, while the several wall brackets 
 each with its electric bulbs, were also cunningly con- 
 trived small antlers. 
 
 When his guests had rested and been regaled with 
 the refreshments Nip deftly produced and served, Brad- 
 shaw showed them about the place. They fell ready vic- 
 tims to its charms. 
 
 After supper there came an hour of billiards, during
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 235 
 
 which Bradshaw received a telephonic report from Fore- 
 man Paddy Skiff who had come up out of the mine and 
 was at the office, and with him Bradshaw arranged for 
 a visit underground for his guests and himself the next 
 morning. 
 
 There then came a response to the long-distance call 
 Norton had put in and Bradshaw called him to the tel- 
 ephone. 
 
 "This is DeWitt Norton talking", Norton told Cen- 
 tral. "Kindly switch me on the Monticana private line." 
 
 In the interval of waiting for his sister to speak, he 
 remarked laughingly to the others: 
 
 "Imagine this kind of reporting home in the days of 
 the Pioneers." 
 
 Before he retired that night, Norton wrote a letter 
 to his sister and placed it in the mail bag in the living 
 room to be taken to town next day and posted. 
 
 And thus he told her, after detailing the delights and 
 some of the experiences of his journey : 
 
 I 
 
 D. Williams received us here at the M. N. with every 
 possible courtesy. We are now quartered at his remark- 
 able bungalow remarkable for one at a mine out in the 
 mountains. We came prepared to rough it to the extent 
 of sleeping under canvas while here and instead we are 
 in a most modern hunting-lodge sort of bungalow with a 
 living-room that would win your heart. There are other 
 rooms in keeping with it a gem of a dining room, a fine 
 kitchen and pantries, light, airy bedrooms, and Williams' 
 private study, in which I am writing now, that is a dream. 
 It is like a small library and den combined. He also has 
 had a special study fitted up in most convenient way for 
 the use of a friend who is a writer and who is to have ex- 
 clusive use of that room whenever he comes here. Lucky
 
 236 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 friend! Everything about the place is complete right 
 down to the cement-lined cellar where there is an excel- 
 lent heating system and splendidly stocked store rooms 
 and other desirable features. So instead of roughing it 
 in tents, here we are enjoying life most comfortably in a 
 modern, electric-lighted dwelling. 
 
 Norton even went into detail in describing the fur- 
 nishings and chandeliers of the living room. 
 Then he went on: 
 
 The view from the veranda is soul delighting, espec- 
 ially for one who has real understanding of western 
 mountain scenery and sunsets. 
 
 Mr. Williams indeed is a splendid fellow to meet. A 
 big, vigorous chap, very quiet spoken I should say, re- 
 served in his way he at once gives the impression of 
 being very much a real man. 
 
 Somehow, most peculiarly, he gives me the impres- 
 sion of a former acquaintanceship that is to say, I 
 somehow vaguely seem to have seen or spoken to him 
 before or to someone somewhat like him, though I can't 
 for the life of me think when or where. 
 
 What I have seen of the mine looks mighty good, 
 though an underground inspection will be necessary to 
 show me what it is really like. Williams tells me that 
 before the end of another year he will have three more 
 shafts in operation on adjacent properties. Then good- 
 by to much of the remaining woodland and mountain 
 scenery around here. Williams says that he always will 
 insist on the preservation of his original cabin and the 
 trees that surround it and his new bungalow. He also 
 says that the freedom of the mountain-side always is to 
 be had by Don Quixote, the burro that carried his equip-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 237 
 
 ment on his first prospecting tour that is, the Don is to 
 have it as long as said Don lasts. The stumbling of this 
 little burro on the trail is generally accredited with hav- 
 ing uncovered the signs which led to the finding of the 
 ore of the M. N., which initials I think stand for Mon- 
 tana something, though Williams has not yet told me 
 what. 
 
 When Norton, his men and Bradshaw stepped off the 
 cage of the M. N., at noon next day, they had, with Paddy 
 Skiff as cicerone, viewed much of the underground work- 
 ings and the Butte men if they said nothing, at least 
 formed the opinion that the M. N. was a splendid prop- 
 erty and was developing into a truly great mine. They 
 saw that the workings, carried along in real workman- 
 ship manner, not only had developed strong leads from 
 which ore was being taken, but also had blocked out a 
 big ore reserve. 
 
 "With depth", said Bradshaw to Norton, "we will be 
 able to increase our tonnage materially and so our work- 
 ing force will have to be considerably larger. That will 
 be gratifying to me in that it will enable us to give em- 
 ployment to more men." 
 
 When they had changed from their "digging clothes" 
 to their other apparel, the party inspected the boarding- 
 house and viewed the neat and comfortable little houses 
 near it. 
 
 "This is the town", Bradshaw informed the visitors, 
 "and its name is Skiffville in honor of our worthy fore- 
 man." 
 
 The afternoon was devoted to a general inspection of 
 the locality, including new prospects and the like, and 
 then back to the bungalow went the party for what Nor- 
 ton aptly said were "all the comforts of home."
 
 238 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 That evening, while Norton's three companions en- 
 tertained themselves with billiards and the pianola, Nor- 
 ton and Bradshaw sat out on the veranda and watched 
 the last of the sinking sun's rays, the shadows steal over 
 the mountain land before them, and the stars come out. 
 They smoked not merely for personal gratification, but 
 also in furtherance of friendliness a way men have 
 when smoking together. 
 
 "If it weren't for all this wealth of scenery around 
 the place", Norton remarked as they were talking of 
 what they had viewed that day, "I would say the M. N. 
 indeed was right in the heart of the Butte district. The 
 ship-shape look of the mine that's not just a mere com- 
 pliment, Mr. Williams certainly is like that of the Butte 
 mines. Your style of mining in fact, the entire method 
 you use here is reminiscent of the Butte way, and that, 
 indeed, is a good system." 
 
 He looked at the other man. 
 
 "Have you ever had much chance to inspect any of 
 the Butte mines?" 
 
 Bradshaw flicked the ash from his cigar. 
 
 "Yes I have seen several of them", he replied. 
 
 "Of course you understand", went on Norton, "that 
 there always is a standing invitation for you to inspect 
 the Mont or any of our properties, and if you ever come 
 to Butte without letting me know of it I'll resent it in- 
 deed so." 
 
 "I shall be glad sometime to avail myself of your kind 
 offer", said Bradshaw, with just a suggestion of a smile. 
 
 "If I do say it", remarked Norton, "the Mont is a re- 
 markable mine one of the best of its kind." 
 
 "I quite agree with you", said the other. 
 
 "Then you have seen it?" 
 
 "I know of it. Also I know of your employment
 
 BORN OF THE .CRUCIBLE 239 
 
 methods, Mr. Norton, and permit me to say that I heart- 
 ily admire them. I realize that employers cannot always 
 know of every small detail connected with even that 
 vital proposition of affording employment, especially as 
 regards big properties, but your way of at least trying 
 to have the right men look after the employing and along 
 your ideas is pleasing. I have tried to be as fair." 
 
 "Mr. Williams", said Norton, "your candid compli- 
 ment is very gratifying to me. Running a big mine with 
 consideration only for its producing phase is not all there 
 is to it by any manner- of means, as you too know. I 
 consider the matter of employment a most important 
 feature." 
 
 "I entirely agree with you and admire you for your 
 view of the matter", said the other. "A man who can 
 give employment ought to be delighted to do so and, if 
 that is the sort of man he is, he gives it in the right 
 way." 
 
 "Your ideas are interesting", said Norton. "Please 
 go on." 
 
 His host did so, speaking in a low, even tone. 
 
 "We all can have theories on this big subject of em- 
 ployment, but sometimes they do not work out when put 
 to the test. The chief obstacle in the way of carrying 
 out equitable and just employment ideas often is caused 
 by the problems of opposition which some of the em- 
 ployes themselves present. I have found that out. Gen- 
 erally speaking, however, there is a way of affording 
 employment by those who can give it that makes for the 
 betterment of all conditions. Now let us consider the 
 M. N. in an impersonal way. Here is a mine discovered 
 by a man through his own efforts. By reason of it, he 
 builds up an industry that employs a considerable num- 
 ber of men. In finding this mine he did not deprive any
 
 other man of anything. It is really that much more of a 
 benefit to the world. It is his property, yet he feels he 
 owes a duty to humanity to which, after all, the benefits 
 placed in and on this world potentially belong. But the 
 reward of his finding the mine and starting a new in- 
 dustry is the ownership of the property, and properly so. 
 The fulfillment of his obligation to humanity's equity in 
 it certainly is not in turning it over to some sort of 
 political organization which says its mission and pur- 
 pose are to take over all the possessions of the world, 
 doubtless because that would be the easy way to achieve 
 success, but is in the quality of the employment he gives. 
 The proper sort of employment is not oppressive, not a 
 hindrance, nor does it deprive any man of his right to 
 continue on his own way if he sees fit. Since it is a fact 
 that the opening of this mine deprived no one of any- 
 thing, and its discovery did benefit many by affording 
 new and more employment, then it seems to me that the 
 manner in which its employment is given cannot irk any- 
 one and should not arouse the slightest opposition." 
 
 "And that way is?" 
 
 "You would care to hear it?" 
 
 "I certainly would." 
 
 "But I don't want to bore you with my ideas." 
 "Please go on." 
 
 "Then", said Bradshaw, "I'll admit that my method 
 is much like yours. Industry and Employment are not, 
 as some might think, eleemosynary institutions. Nor 
 should they be down-grinding ones either. The employ- 
 ers who know that when they give their employes the 
 best opportunities and treatment the latter usually will 
 make good progress and do their best work have arrived 
 at a very happy conclusion. That is not necessarily a 
 coldly economic way to look at it since the employe",
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 241 
 
 while making better returns also, is inspired to work on- 
 ward and upward. The members of those cults, which 
 fight work, attack that theory, but it must be remembered 
 that fighting that uncompromising law of Nature, Work, 
 is their chief business. If they would put in as much 
 time and effort working as they do opposing work, they 
 would be of far more benefit to the world and would be 
 vastly more content. . . I pay my men good wages. 
 They are encouraged to save, and of course I'll admit 
 that their location out here helps them to do that. I do 
 all I can to look afte'r their material welfare. The men 
 have a hospital association which does not charge an in- 
 itiation fee, but taxes each member a dollar a month. I 
 maintain an entire ward in a hospital in town for the 
 association. The dollar which each member pays to the 
 association insures him or the members of his family, 
 if he has one here, free medical treatment in that ward, 
 the association monthly dues going to pay the associa- 
 tion doctor, whom I nominated and the members elected. 
 The boarding-house rates are exceedingly moderate and 
 the men who have families and use the houses, pay just 
 enough rent to return a fair rate of interest on the cost 
 of building the houses and the expenditure in keeping 
 them in first class repair. The men, by their own votes, 
 chose the sliding wage scale system with a specified min- 
 imum; the wage scale here being the same and depend- 
 ing on the Butte wage scale as long as the sliding scale 
 system prevails there. The decision of the men in that 
 regard has become a fixed rule of the working system 
 here, and so no contract is needed to insure it. I watch 
 my men and try to advance those who show the ability 
 to warrant it. At my request, the men have elected a 
 grievance committee, which has the right to decide the 
 merit of any grievance sent to it by any employe, and if
 
 242 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 it deems the complaint thus made to be unfair, it so 
 notifies the employe in question. If the committee 
 thinks the grievance fair, it notifies me of it, and we 
 meet in what we call the council room in the boarding- 
 house and discuss it. If, on my part, I have a grievance 
 I submit it to the committee and we discuss it. The 
 committee thus, as it were, has a sort of supervisory 
 control of grievances, is strictly on its honor and elimi- 
 nates the chance of any injustice manifesting itself and 
 when you put men on their honor you, at least, tempt to 
 the surface the best qualities in them. The committee, 
 thus far, has only notified me of two grievances and I 
 have notified it of one mine being against the attempt 
 at agitation in the mine by a certain miner who was 
 warned by the committee to desist and who was fired by 
 me when he refused to behave himself. The men have 
 frowned on all attempts to form a union here. They like 
 my method and, besides, they do not want to pay union 
 dues, strike benefits or be bothered by agitators who 
 sometimes creep into such organizations in the guise of 
 being good union organizers. If the men here ever want 
 to form a union I will not oppose it, just so it is a bona 
 fide union. I won't stand for an agitator round the place", 
 Bradshaw went on and his words held almost a snap in 
 them. "I'd close this property tight as a drum before I'd 
 submit to the dictates of any agitator or agitators and I 
 think I can tell when a man's really sincere or just a 
 disturber." 
 
 Then he resumed his even tone. 
 
 "Like you, Mr. Norton, I do not ask any man who 
 works for me what his religion is, his politics or what 
 his personal views might be. All I contract for are his 
 good services. I don't pamper anyone around here in 
 idleness that would be doing any good man an in jus-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 243 
 
 tice. It would be as bad as over-working him. Fortu- 
 nately, in this western country, there is a dearth of 
 down-grinding employment. I think the employer who 
 is equitable in every respect with regard to his employes 
 does a real good for humanity's cause, which is not the 
 case with the employer sometimes to be found in east- 
 ern factories and the like, who grinds his employes down 
 in every way and then splurges before the public with a 
 big gift to some charity. Men want justice and not char- 
 ity though, of course, we know there indeed are some 
 charities such as homes for destitute girls, for orphans 
 and the helpless aged that should be helped to the very 
 limit." 
 
 "And are your theories working out to mutual satis- 
 faction here?" asked Norton. 
 
 "So far yes." 
 
 "I indeed am deeply interested in what you have said. 
 I, too, have tried to solve problems of that sort satisfac- 
 torily I'm trying right along", said Norton. 
 
 "Even in my limited experience", Bradshaw contin- 
 ued, "I have found that the problems are many and com- 
 plex. There are those who are resentful of any and 
 everything. They have no fight with anyone or any sys- 
 tem but just resent the fact that they have to work. You 
 see that illustrated in a small way sometimes by atten- 
 dants who treat customers crustily as if they felt it an 
 injustice to have to work and I do not mean those made 
 testy by unfair employment methods. It's proper 
 enough, naturally, for a person who is ambitious to want 
 to advance. In fact, it's the right idea, but imagining 
 that work is something to fight against is not ambition. I 
 have another plan for helping men employed here. Any 
 one of them who has the ambition to go out on a legiti- 
 mate prospecting trip, knows what he is doing and has
 
 244 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 some meritorious locality in view, I grub-stake." 
 
 "Not a bad idea", said Norton. 
 
 "In your Mont mine, Mr. Norton, you have mighty 
 good safety appliances and conveniences for the men. I, 
 too, have gone in for that to the limit", Bradshaw in- 
 formed his visitor. "Just as you have, we, too, have our 
 'Safety First' propaganda and 'Safety First' teams and 
 rescue workers as well as the latest methods of mine 
 safety equipment. I think I have about perfected a new 
 safety mine cage clutch that will help." 
 
 "Man, if you have done that, then you have accom- 
 plished something great !" exclaimed Norton starting up. 
 "That is something in which I, and I think I can say all 
 mining men, are deeply concerned. Have you a model of 
 it? Can it be seen?" 
 
 "Come in and let me show you the plans", invited 
 Bradshaw rising, while Norton did likewise and followed 
 the other into Bradshaw's study, where the latter took a 
 set of plans from his desk. 
 
 "I have applied for my patent and expect it most any 
 time now", Bradshaw said. "Paddy Skiff has rigged up 
 a working model of it in the mine yard. It is just a 
 make-believe shaft which is nothing more than a three- 
 sided affair of scaffolding, extending up from the ground 
 and outlining in width and breadth the dimensions of a 
 shaft, surmounted by a gallows frame, and hanging in 
 it is a mine cage equipped with my safety clutch. When 
 the cage is dropped from the top or from anywhere along 
 in the improvised shaft, an idea can be had of how the 
 safety clutch works." 
 
 "That is what I want to see first thing tomorrow", 
 declared Norton enthusiastically, as he began examining 
 the plans. "What gave you the idea to make such an 
 invention?"
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 245 
 
 "A cage dropping accident", was the reply. 
 "Were you in it?" asked Norton. 
 "No", answered the other man, "but I experienced 
 quite a fall about that time."
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 "SACRED PRECINCTS" 
 
 On his return home, DeWitt Norton had much to re- 
 count to his sister and Margaret Hanlon regarding his 
 journey into the mountains and his visit at the M. N. 
 mine. 
 
 His description of the bungalow at the M. N. and the 
 various details of the property and the locality in gen- 
 eral given to his sister, Margaret and Walton, one cheer- 
 ful evening as they all sat enjoying the comfort of the 
 Norton veranda, held his listeners' close attention. 
 
 "A remarkable place", he was saying, "and indicat- 
 ive of the man, D. Williams, who runs the mine. He is 
 a type of American it does your heart good to meet. He 
 has emphatic views on methods of employment" Wal- 
 ton, under cover of the shadow about him, smiled to him- 
 self at these words "and he talks most entertainingly, 
 I might say convincingly." 
 
 "Another thing", said Mary Norton, "is that I like 
 men who care for horses and dogs. To me that is an 
 indication of a disposition that is trustworthy." 
 
 Norton spoke in bantering tone to his sister. 
 
 "I'm almost sorry now, Mary, that Williams is com- 
 ing here in a couple of weeks or so, because if any sus^ 
 ceptible young lady sees him and talks to well, do not 
 blame me for consequences." 
 
 "That does not alarm me", she replied in a way suit-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 247 
 
 ed to his own. "You, of all men, DeWitt Norton, should 
 know that the word 'susceptible' is not in my vocabu- 
 lary." 
 
 "Perhaps there, but not often used", he teased her. 
 "Well, then Margaret" turning to the other girl "how 
 about you?" 
 
 "My vocabulary has the same deficiency", she an- 
 swered in her cool, well-bred way. 
 
 "Your trip was wonderful", remarked Walton, 
 directing the talk back to its former channel. "Why 
 Montanans leave home to see mountain scenery is a 
 mystery to me when there is a world of the best of it 
 almost in their own back-yards." 
 
 "Why, there is no mystery about that", said Norton. 
 "The scenery of Switzerland, for instance, has become 
 far better known to many Montanans than that wonder- 
 ful mountain country over which I have traveled, largely 
 through the belief that if our own scenery at home is 
 good, that a long ways off must be vastly superior. Mon- 
 tana is marvelously picturesque and fascinating from end 
 to end, and especially so in its mountain regions." 
 
 "And if we lived thousands of miles away from it", 
 said Mary, her clear, tuneful voice at its best, "we would 
 not rest until we could come out here to see it. But 
 being here, where we can view it, how often do we do 
 so?" 
 
 Tharny came a little later in the evening. Since his 
 return from his ill-starred trip to Spokane, he had been 
 paying more assiduous court than ever to Mary Norton 
 and never before had he exerted himself so much as now 
 to be attentive in all those little details that women like. 
 
 To Walton, the information given by Norton that 
 Bradshaw intended visiting in Butte and calling at the 
 Norton home in the next couple of weeks, was news, and
 
 248 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 he immediately came to the conclusion that in planning 
 thus to come without saying anything to him about it, 
 Dan was manifesting the irrepressible streak of boyish- 
 ness deep in him a quality that delighted Walton and 
 endeared Dan the more to him. So smiling, when he 
 thought of Bradshaw's evidently planned surprise-visit, 
 he scrupulously refrained from referring to it when next 
 he wrote to Dan. 
 
 At work in his office one evening, Walton received a 
 telephone call from Norton. 
 
 "We are very eager for you to come up to the house 
 tomorrow evening", the mine owner told him, "for we 
 want you to meet a most interesting visitor. I'll confess 
 now that I promised him that one of the rewards of his 
 coming to see us would be meeting you." 
 
 The newspaperman said he would be glad to attend. 
 After he had hung up the receiver of his desk telephone, 
 he leaned back in his chair and laughed. 
 
 "So young Daniel is going to venture in as a social 
 lion", he remarked to himself. "And he imagines he is 
 going to put over a good joke on me. Well, I'll fix him 
 maybe." 
 
 The next evening, when Walton entered the Norton 
 drawing room, he found DeWitt Norton, his sister, Mar- 
 garet Hanlon and Dan in a congenial group conversing 
 and awaiting his arrival. 
 
 Norton and Dan stood up as Walton approached them 
 and Norton said : "Mr. Williams, permit me to introduce 
 you to Mr. Walton, the distinguished editor and novelist 
 of whom I have told you. John, I know you well re- 
 member all I've told you of Mr. Williams." 
 
 Dan looked his friend blandly in the eye and putting 
 out his hand, said cordially, "I am honored to meet Mr. 
 Walton. I feel as if I have known him for some time."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 249 
 
 Walton did not give Dan the satisfaction of appear- 
 ing the least puzzled. He took Dan's hand, bowed 
 slightly and expressed his pleasure at meeting him. 
 
 Then the men seated themselves, and general conver- 
 sation resumed. 
 
 "Mr. Walton, as you may know, is apt to interview 
 you closely", remarked Norton to Dan. "As both a news- 
 paperman and a novelist it is his prerogative to find out 
 about everything." 
 
 Dan smiled a trifle. 
 
 "Perhaps not so much a prerogative as a special priv- 
 ilege." Then, turning to the newspaperman, he inquired 
 suavely : 
 
 "Might I ask, Mr. Walton, if you are writing any 
 more books?" 
 
 And Walton, almost unable to restrain his impulse to 
 laugh, looked away, but Margaret supplied the answer 
 for him, stating that the friends of Mr. Walton were 
 urging him to remain firm in his expressed purpose to 
 continue with his latest idea in that direction. 
 
 "If you are looking for inspiration for mountain de- 
 scription", said Dan to Walton, "you ought to come to 
 my place. In fact" addressing the others "I am go- 
 ing to take this occasion to repeat the invitation I ex- 
 tended through Mr. Norton, and tell you that I will ex- 
 pect you all at my humble mountain home next week. 
 And if Mr. Walton really will agree to come, he may 
 find a theme for a new novel. I'll show you mountain 
 scenery that will fascinate you every time you see it, for 
 it is true that no matter how often you view them, the 
 mountains are never twice the same." 
 
 So it was settled that the following week was to find 
 the Nortons, Margaret and Walton the guests of Dan. 
 
 "What do you call your bungalow, Mr, Williams?"
 
 250 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 asked Mary. "It must have a name." 
 
 "Mostly I refer to it as 'the shack' when talking of it 
 to any of the boys at the mine", Dan informed her. 
 
 "That will never do", she declared. "But we will at- 
 tend to that when we get there." 
 
 And she had not the faintest idea that her words, 
 betokening an interest in something that belonged to him 
 in a more personal way, thrilled him. 
 
 They spoke of various subjects, and while he kept up 
 his part of the conversation, Dan also proved that better 
 part of a good conversationalist an attentive listener. 
 
 "Has the West always been your home?" Margaret 
 asked him. 
 
 "I've always considered it so, even when away from 
 it", Dan replied. "California is my native state and 
 Montana, truly, my state by adoption; and now I know 
 my Montana summer and winter. Part of last winter 
 was unusually severe for me up there at the mine, in the 
 primitive little cabin I then was using, and I discovered 
 that while writers generally like to tell more of the 
 mountains of summer, yet the winters there might be 
 productive of unusual and interesting experiences too." 
 
 "You speak as one who knows", remarked Walton. 
 "From actual experience, I mean", he added. 
 
 "Come we want you to relate one of those experi- 
 ences", demanded Norton and the two girls and Walton 
 likewise insisted. 
 
 "I'll tell you of a curious incident at the cabin last 
 winter", said Dan with a smile. "One very cold evening, 
 just after a heavy fall of snow, when I was enjoying and 
 appreciating my red-hot stove, I thought I heard a call. 
 I bundled up and went out to investigate, and sure 
 enough came on a man struggling through the snow to- 
 wards my cabin. I helped him in, and while he was
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 251 
 
 thawing out, I fixed him up a meal. He said he was a 
 mining engineer and that while on his way to town had 
 wandered off the trail. If ever a man looked like a dan- 
 gerous character I thought he did. However, I told him 
 he could stay all night and prepared a 'shake-down' for 
 him near the stove. I had some money in the cabin and 
 supplies that were valuable at that time of the year, and 
 the cabins of the miners were some distance away; so I 
 kept my revolver handy. I was surprised when he drew 
 out and looked at an exceptionally fine gold watch and, 
 when he caught my gaze at him and the watch, he hastily 
 replaced it. There was no doubting that we were be- 
 coming more and more suspicious of each other. The 
 thought flashed through my mind that this watch might 
 be part of some plunder. And the way I had stared at 
 the watch was enough to arouse the other man's sus- 
 picion. I kept an eye on him and I knew he was doing 
 the same with regard to me. When I told him he had 
 better turn in near the fire, he thanked me and removed 
 his coat and there pinned to his shirt was a fraternity 
 pin identical with one I had in my kit. We were frater- 
 nity brothers. So we sat up to a late hour and fratern- 
 ized, anoTwe had a hearty laugh as to our former sus- 
 picions of each other. The mountain experiences he had 
 gone through would fill a book. It was indeed odd to find 
 that the first outsider who had come near me in a month 
 in the midst of a severe winter up in the mountains of 
 Western Montana was a college fraternity brother." 
 "Splendid!" exclaimed Mary. 
 
 "And what fraternity was it, might I ask?" inquired 
 her brother. 
 
 Dan told him. 
 
 "My fraternity too!" exclaimed Norton standing up 
 and extending his hand to Dan, who arose and shook
 
 252 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 hands with Norton. Over his shoulder Norton ad- 
 dressed Walton. "Now, Sir Novelist what say you to 
 such a climax?" 
 
 "It is one", returned the newspaperman as the other 
 men resumed their places, "that I never would dare to 
 write in any story." 
 
 The others laughed, and then Dan remarked to Mary 
 Norton: "If my feeble little experience merits any re- 
 ward, I claim it in music from you. At 'the shack' we 
 have a surfeit of the 'canned' variety. I never will for- 
 get what my foreman and very good friend said one 
 evening when I took him over to play a new medley of 
 Irish airs for him that I knew he would like. He lis- 
 tened carefully and after I had finished pumping the 
 pianola in my best style, he said: 
 
 " 'Ut shure do seem funny that some persun will have 
 ta shpend a forchun larnin' ta play wid th' han's wat 
 an-y wan kin grind out by poompin' wid their fate an' no 
 edikashun at all.' " 
 
 "Perhaps your foreman also might say", laughed 
 Mary as she went to the piano, " 'the less musical train- 
 in' an' the more poompin ; the less painful maybe for all 
 concerned.' " 
 
 She played for them, with soulful understanding, 
 Chopin's lilting "Fantaisie-Impromptu" and followed 
 that with a dashing Bohemian melody. She called Mar- 
 garet over to sing for them a charming Saint-Saens se- 
 lection, a bit from "Samson and Delilah" which suited 
 her melodious contralto voice, and which was Walton's 
 favorite. It, too, brought a demand for more. 
 
 And while the spell of melody held them, vivid 
 thoughts passed through Bradshaw's mind. He recalled 
 the look of Mary Norton and the voice of her the first 
 time he had seen her on the road above Carty's. What-
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 253 
 
 ever he had thought of her before ; whatever of a stimu- 
 lus to his ambition she had been, he saw now that not 
 even his most ardent dreaming of her had pictured the 
 girl as she really was. Her beauty was not merely su- 
 perficial, but was the reflection of the soul of her. She 
 was a girl and yet a woman presiding over her 
 brother's household had brought out womanly qualities 
 perhaps sooner than otherwise might have been the case. 
 There was a sweet graciousness about her and yet a 
 strength of opinion not disquieting nor aggressive, that 
 went well with her sureness of poise. 
 
 The other girl, Margaret Hanlon, with her aristo- 
 cratic cast of countenance, her blue-blackness of hair and 
 cool, calmness of manner, was of a very different type. 
 A beautiful woman, too, she was not one ever to make 
 the appeal to Bradshaw as had Mary Norton, whereas 
 for the studious Walton, Margaret Hanlon outshone all 
 other women. 
 
 Mary Norton, so Bradshaw felt sure, was one to aid 
 a man, to stimulate him and yet make him manifest his 
 own best efforts. And all the time she would be depen- 
 dent on his care and his strength and always needful of 
 his love, which would have to be a clean and a true and 
 a lasting love, or else this girl of womanly strength and 
 womanly weakness, of womanly self-reliance and wom- 
 anly dependence would fade and droop and sink away 
 like a lovely, fading, drooping flower. But in the love 
 of the man worthy of her, what could not such a woman 
 be and do ? Such a woman would give all or nothing. 
 
 Then the mountain man thought of a dingy, little 
 shoe-shop with a modest little sitting-room adjoining it, 
 presided over by a girl of buxom, womanly attractive- 
 ness and silky brown hair in coronet braids around her 
 head. This room in which he now sat was everything
 
 254 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 that a drawing-room in the mansion of a DeWitt Norton 
 should be. That other one, the modest sitting-room back 
 of the shoe-shop, had been drab, stolid, typical. 
 
 The girl, who knew this drawing-room as part of 
 her home, was of high degree, of finest sensibilities, of 
 thorough mentality, of a womanly fineness in every 
 way that gratified the very soul of a man who 
 craved the fineness of life. Argue it as philoso- 
 phers will; dispute it as politicians may; sneer at it 
 as the street corner demagogue does, there never- 
 theless is a fineness in life just as there is a crudeness 
 a fineness that has with it sincere regard for the best 
 there is in God-given and Nature-given and man-made 
 laws, just as there is a crudeness that is of earth earthy. 
 The men and women with the fineness born in their 
 souls, whether they come from the highest or the lowest 
 or intermediate stratum of society, as mankind averages 
 it, can no more help inclining to the fine, the true, than 
 can the individual of crudeness of soul avoid tending the 
 other way. Such attribute of soul may be the refining 
 process of spiritual study and precept. Theologians 
 grow amazed and bewildered at the very profundity of 
 the subject, for it is, after all, like the mystery of never- 
 ending space, or the trend of the solar system, or the un- 
 folding of a child's mentality. 
 
 The girl to whom the little sitting-room back of the 
 shoe-shop had been much of home, had not had con- 
 ferred on her that fineness of soul. It was not the acci- 
 dent of her birth, nor her station in life, nor any man- 
 date of mankind that such was her lack but that Fate 
 had so decreed, though sometimes it happens that a 
 flower of unusual beauty, fragrance and inspiring qual- 
 ity blooms in a pitifully small garden plot amid the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 255 
 
 dire and dank hopelessness of otherwise squalid back- 
 yard. 
 
 Bradshaw looked at Mary Norton and saw her as she 
 was Patrician. 
 
 He thought of Millie Klemner as he had known her 
 Plebeian. 
 
 And he knew, too, that in the matter of soul desire, 
 he truly had come into his own. 
 
 The moment that Bradshaw and Walton, leaving the 
 Norton home together, turned out of the driveway to the 
 thoroughfare, the miner placed a hand on his friend's 
 arm. 
 
 "John, I made a fool of myself tonight", he said 
 seriously. "I'm sorry." 
 
 Walton laughed. 
 
 "Why Dan, I thought you at your best", the writer 
 declared. "Your stories of the hills were interesting and 
 well told. I am sure you made the hit of your young 
 life at the Nortons' tonight." 
 
 "I was there under false pretense", said Bradshaw. 
 "What will they think when they know who I am? What 
 will they think of my attitude toward you? For it was 
 my action that gave you the cue as how to act toward 
 me. What I did was all very puerile. I am disgusted 
 with myself that's all. 
 
 "You are taking it entirely too seriously, my boy", 
 said Walton calmly. "Remember this you are not a 
 story-book person. Real human beings of whatever size 
 or age keep enough of childish prankishness in their sys- 
 tems to enable them to deviate slightly from the conven- 
 tions once in awhile, or, at least, recognize the natural- 
 ness of it making others do so. The man or woman who 
 no longer retains that sort of ability, we allude to as 
 crabid or crusty or soured and such a person is not
 
 256 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 popular. Why, man there was nothing wrong in what 
 you did or said at the Nortons' tonight. Indeed, there 
 was quite an element of romance in it." 
 
 "In some ways, the entire proposition seems inordi- 
 nately silly, now that I look back at it", Bradshaw per- 
 sisted. "I thought it would be a good joke to meet you 
 there and take you unawares. Of course, as to my going 
 there as Williams, that was something I could not help. 
 I'll have to rely on their generosity and their good sense 
 to overlook it when the time comes to explain, as I can- 
 didly intend to do." 
 
 "You are seeing it my way after all", said the news- 
 paperman, taking his friend by the arm. "As for the 
 part concerning me it had to be just that way to make 
 the rest of it appear right." 
 
 "At any rate, it won't be a long continued deception", 
 remarked Bradshaw. "As there is nothing unworthy be- 
 ing concealed, nor anything wrong to hide, why, I think 
 it all may work out well enough." 
 
 "Leave it to common sense, to a sense of humor, to 
 human love of adventure and the unusual and to Mary 
 Norton to straighten it all out", commented the news- 
 paperman. 
 
 To a question asked her that same night by Mary 
 Norton, Margaret Hanlon replied: "I'll be only too 
 happy, Mary, to remain over and go with you and De- 
 Witt to that ideal place of which Mr. Williams told us." 
 
 "And I am sure John Walton will enjoy it too", re- 
 marked Mary with a sidelong glance at her friend. Then 
 apropos of nothing, she added: "DeWitt generally is a 
 very good judge of men. He seems to be able almost 
 instinctively to determine their dispositions. His de- 
 scription of Mr. Williams as a manly man I think is very 
 p ;oper."
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 257 
 
 "A most interesting and romantic kind of man", 
 agreed the other girl. 
 
 And before Mary Norton glided off into the realm of 
 dreams, there recurred to her certain characteristics of 
 the man which she had remarked and tried to study 
 that seemed somewhat familiar to her, as if she had seen 
 some man before who raised his head, chin out, the same 
 way when he said something emphatically; who had the 
 way, too, of looking down and slightly to one side occa- 
 sionally when intently listening to some one, and who 
 likewise had the same manner of upright set and jaw- 
 firmness.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 THARNY GOES FISHING 
 
 For weeks, Tharny had been seeking an opportunity 
 to propose to Mary Norton. Several times he had 
 thought the moment opportune, only to find that before 
 he could lead up to his declaration there had been inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 Indeed, he was almost in the mood to take a desper- 
 ate chance and make his avowal even if the time and 
 place were not as romantic as he would have liked to 
 have them, for he counted on the romantic element as an 
 important factor. 
 
 Matters were not progressing at all to his liking in 
 a business way and an affiliation with the Norton family 
 was by far his best move. He was venturing everything 
 on it, and accordingly it keyed him up to high nervous 
 tension. 
 
 He arranged a theater party with Mary, Margaret 
 Hanlon and Norton as his guests, hoping that somehow 
 the chance would be presented for a very confidential 
 talk with Mary. His anxiety was causing him to become 
 somewhat mentally fevered concerning the girl, and sev- 
 eral times he caught himself up in time to avoid what he 
 had sense enough to know would at once prove fatal to 
 his plan. 
 
 It came to him as a shock when, on the way home, 
 Norton told of the contemplated visit to D. Williams'
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 259 
 
 place the following week. At once the scheme suggested 
 itself to Tharny to follow to that region and trust to luck 
 to give him the opportunity he so eagerly sought. He 
 knew he could not remain in town and possess his soul 
 in patience pending her return. 
 
 "Why, I'm going out for a fishing trip next week", 
 he announced. "Indeed, I expect to be over in the Red 
 Flower valley district part of the time." 
 
 "Perhaps you will see us", said Mary. "Come and 
 call on us at Mr. Williams' bungalow. I am sure Mr. 
 Williams would be very glad to see you." 
 
 "I don't like to impose on good-nature", returned 
 Tharny. "But I might meet you somewhere up there." 
 
 Tharny went to the town near Bradshaw's mine the 
 day before the Nortons and Margaret Hanlon left for 
 the M. N. 
 
 He took no fishing tackle with him, but he did take 
 a riding suit, for he planned to do more or less touring 
 on horseback in the vicinity of the town. Nothing like a 
 definite plan for encountering Mary Norton, suggested 
 itself to him, but he more than ever was possessed of the 
 overmastering desire to be as near her as possible it 
 would be far easier to endure her absence from Butte 
 that way. 
 
 To his surprise he encountered Vignon on the second 
 day of his arrival at his destination. Tharny was on his 
 way to a livery stable when he met him, and he at once 
 drew Vignon into a nearby doorway. 
 
 "What are you doing here?" Tharny demanded. 
 
 "The game's not good in Butte right now", replied 
 Vignon with a leer. "Me an' Wilkins an' Snitch thought 
 we would take the air for a while and maybe beat it over 
 to the Coeur d'Alenes. We stopped off here an' I think 
 there's something here I want to investigate. I want to
 
 260 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 get a few more good looks at this guy Williams." 
 
 "Do you see him often?" asked Tharny. 
 
 "We seen him a few times passing along the road 
 past our hangout, but he didn' know we was there. I 
 hear he don't like wanderin' campers like us near his 
 place", said Vignon with a sneering laugh. 
 
 "Where are you located?" Tharny questioned. 
 
 "In the woods off the highway that goes to his mine." 
 
 Tharny did not speak for a moment or two. Then 
 he lowered his tone and spoke more confidentially to the 
 other. 
 
 "But we can't do much talking here", he said finally 
 "I'll keep in touch with you, Vignon. I'll locate your 
 place tomorrow and we can fix things up all right. That 
 will be a lot better than your coming in town to see me." 
 
 "No, I guess it wouldn't be a good idea for us to be 
 seen consultin' together", Vignon remarked, the sneer 
 still on his lips. 
 
 "And keep Wilkins and Snitch from parading around 
 the town", Tharny cautioned. 
 
 They exchanged a few words more, and Tharny took 
 a bill from his wallet and handed it to Vignon. 
 
 "You can't go wrong in finding the place", Vignon 
 said as he tucked the currency away. 
 
 Bradshaw met his guests at the depot in town with 
 a big, new touring car, and while they at first declared 
 that it might have been more in keeping to have pene- 
 trated into his mountain retreat, as they spoke of it, 
 with horses in real mountaineer traveling style, yet they 
 agreed after their ride across the valley and up into the 
 mountains that the mode of conveyance he had provided 
 was the more conducive to comfort, especially after the 
 long train ride. 
 
 The mountain bungalow, to which their host took
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 261 
 
 them, won the enthusiastic approval of the young women 
 and Walton, and the repeated "I told you so" of Norton 
 from the moment they came in sight of it. 
 
 The white-clad Nip, smiling and bowing, met them 
 with true major-domo manner at the door, and when 
 they entered the bungalow's cool interior, they found it 
 had been flower-adorned by the conscientious Jap. Each 
 new feature of the bungalow revealed to those of the 
 party, who had not been there before, brought forth 
 more expressions of delight. 
 
 Later on, when Walton cornered Bradshaw alone, he 
 spoke to the miner with enthusiasm. 
 
 "Dan, that writing-room you've fixed up for me is a 
 dream and no mistake. I almost had to laugh when you 
 said that the writer friend for whom you had fixed it up 
 wouldn't mind my using it. The trouble is that it is so 
 complete as a lounging place and the view from its win- 
 dows so attractive that I don't know how I ever could 
 get down to writing in it." 
 
 "If you insist *on writing", returned Bradshaw, "go 
 to it, John, but on this particular visit you don't have to 
 do a tap of writing and" he smiled at the newspaper- 
 man "if I know what I am talking about, I don't think 
 you'll do much of it this time." 
 
 "Never happier than when writing or trying to do 
 so", remarked Walton with a laugh. 
 
 "Or", said Bradshaw, "when in process of getting 
 an inspiration from an inspiring source." 
 
 The young women made instant friends with Brad- 
 shaw's Airedale and with Don Quixote, which sagacious 
 and pampered beast immediately took a great liking to 
 them, following them about while the Airedale, too, 
 waited constant attendance on them. The only grief 
 that came to the burro was that it could not follow them
 
 262 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 into the bungalow, and when they entered it, Don Quix- 
 ote would remain before the veranda gazing with what 
 looked like aggrieved surprise at the closed screen-door. 
 
 "Nip never has seemed so happy since he's been with 
 me here as he does now", Bradshaw told his guests en 
 route to the mine, later in the day. "He evidently thinks 
 he never has had a proper chance before up here to show 
 what he can do in the way of cooking, and this is his 
 first attempt at general house-party entertaining, so he 
 is putting forth every effort." 
 
 "He is a treasure", said Mary Norton. 
 
 "As a discoverer you are surely a vast success", 
 laughingly said Margaret to Bradshaw. 
 
 At supper that evening, Margaret made an announce- 
 ment. 
 
 "Mary and I have made some wonderful discoveries 
 of our own", she said. "We have found two splendid rid- 
 ing horses and a most enticing looking buckboard in the 
 stable, and we mean to avail ourselves of them if Mr. 
 Williams has no objection." 
 
 "Any objections he might have are hereby over- 
 ruled", stated Walton. 
 
 Norton regarded his sister with mock severity. 
 
 "Now, young lady", he said, "we'll have no gallavant- 
 ing about on mountain roads and paths on horses, un- 
 less every one of the 'Safety First' provisos duly made 
 and provided for are strictly observed." 
 
 "I appeal to Mr. Williams", said Mary. "Are we not 
 to be permitted the use of those horses ?" 
 
 "I think you would find them safe enough", Dan re- 
 plied with a smile, "but then I quite agree with Mr. Nor- 
 ton that riding about on strange mountain roads and 
 trails might not be the best practice unless some compe- 
 tent guide is along. I am going to have another of my
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 263 
 
 horses one used for driving purposes back tomorrow 
 when Jackson, one of my men, returns from the lower 
 camp, where he is bossing some new development work. 
 And I think we might accommodate three more riding 
 horses from town in our stables up here, so that when we 
 go on our excursions, where no automobile possibly could 
 go, we will be well provided." 
 
 So they talked and planned for visits to different 
 adjacent localities and altogether it was evident that 
 the house party at "the shack" was in a happy frame of 
 mind. 
 
 Norton and Bradshaw were smoking on the veranda 
 that evening, pausing now and then in their conversa- 
 tion to listen to the sweet singing of Margaret Hanlon 
 or the playing of Norton's sister, while Walton obtained 
 that entertainment from a much nearer vantage place. 
 
 And then, a little later, when Walton was showing 
 and explaining a book of photographic mountain views 
 to Margaret Hanlon, Mary came out on the veranda just 
 as the two men there had tossed away the carefully ex- 
 tinguished ends of their cigars. 
 
 "Truly a poetry-quoting night", she said, seating her- 
 self on the railing next to a wide pillar and gazing across 
 the clearing and the trees down along the mountain side 
 deep in shadows excepting where the moonlight picked 
 out the higher points. 
 
 "If I want to write a few lines to Carter at the office 
 in Butte", said Norton, "I'd better do so now for I'll be 
 too busy tomorrow. So I'll ask you to excuse me", and 
 he left. 
 
 Bradshaw seated himself on the rail a little distance 
 from the girl. 
 
 "I am mighty glad, Miss Norton, that the place is 
 not a disappointment to any of my guests", he said.
 
 264 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "But one thing about it is", she objected. 
 
 "May I ask what that is?" he queried. 
 "Its name", replied the girl. "I think it a fearful 
 misnomer to call this delightful bungalow 'the shack'." 
 She spoke with a girlish disdain that brought a laugh 
 from him. 
 
 "What would you suggest?" he asked. 
 
 The girl looked away again over the clearing and the 
 trees bathed in the soft moon glow. She was not one to 
 descend to that manner of querulous, quibbling affec- 
 tion that some young women mistake for the finesse of 
 conversational dealing with men, but was wholesomely 
 direct. 
 
 "I think 'Mountain View' would be appropriate", she 
 said, looking at him candidly. 
 
 "Then 'Mountain View' it is now and forever", he 
 declared. 
 
 They went in to inform the others of the selection 
 of a new name for the bungalow, which information 
 evoked due acclaim. 
 
 Bradshaw and Walton were to use the cabin, Brad- 
 shaw's original home, which stood among the trees at 
 one side of the clearing, as sleeping quarters. 
 
 When they had left the others, the two friends 
 strolled slowly across the clearing to the shelter of the 
 trees, seating themselves on a log in front of the cabin 
 for a final smoke before turning in. 
 
 "It's like a chapter out of a novel", said Bradshaw. 
 "Behold ! the ex-mucker become host of charming ladies 
 and gallant gentlemen." 
 
 "Still the old hankering to oppose those who acquire 
 even when it's you, yourself, who is doing the acquir- 
 ing", remarked the candid newspaperman. 
 
 "You're wrong, all wrong", and Bradshaw shook his
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 265 
 
 head. "I surely did not mean to convey that impression. 
 No, my cynical friend, I was merely marveling at the 
 wonder of it all." 
 
 "It's a tribute to your ability", said Walton. 
 
 "To my luck, you mean", remarked the other. 
 
 "And what, in the final analysis, is the good of luck 
 without ability?" questioned Walton. 
 
 "You see plenty of luck without ability", Bradshaw 
 stated. 
 
 "But it takes ability to enjoy luck", persisted the 
 newspaperman and the miner, slapping him on the back, 
 arose. 
 
 "Thus endeth the lesson", he said, dropping what 
 was left of his cigar and grinding it with his heel. "I 
 cannot argue successfully against you, my argumenta- 
 tive and clever friend." 
 
 Walton also carefully extinguished his cigar. 
 
 "I am glad of one thing anyhow", said the newspaper- 
 man, "and that is I know you have the ability to enjoy 
 the luck I think you are going to have."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 THE ARROW 
 
 Bradshaw and Walton were up with the dawn and 
 breakfasted alone, for the others of the house party were 
 not yet awake. Soon thereafter they were at the mine. 
 Bradshaw prepared to go underground, and Walton ac- 
 cepted the delighted Paddy Skiff's invitation to see the 
 "Missus". 
 
 "Sure", said Paddy. "Miss Nortin was glad to see 
 me, bless her, an' she's promised to come over an' see 
 our place too." 
 
 "Don't wait for me, Dan", said Walton to Bradshaw, 
 as he was about to leave, "if you want to return to the 
 house before I get back, I can return alone." 
 
 Bradshaw, returning to the bungalow an hour or so 
 before noon, encountered Mary Norton and the Airedale 
 and Don Quixote amid the trees at the edge of the 
 clearing. 
 
 "Welcome!" she exclaimed when she saw him. "Do 
 you know there is a wonderful spring of coldest, best 
 water right here among the trees? We three have been 
 enjoying it." 
 
 "One of the handiest and best things on the place", he 
 agreed. "I think I would like some right now." 
 
 Followed by the Airedale and Don Quixote, they went 
 the short distance to the spring. 
 
 This may be a prosaic way to treat so romantic a 
 spring", said Bradshaw taking a tin cup from a stump
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 267 
 
 beside it, "but it's a convenient way", and he dipped the 
 cup into the bubbling, crystal water and tendered it to 
 the girl. 
 
 "Not any now, thank you", she said. 
 
 "Then permit me", and, taking off his hat, he put the 
 cup to his lips and drank deeply. 
 
 "DeWitt has walked down to the lower camp", she 
 informed him, as they made their way back towards the 
 clearing, "and Margaret is showing Nip how to make 
 pop-overs, so I came out here to entertain Don Quixote 
 and Brave." She laid a hand on the head of the splen- 
 did Airedale which, when he could be, was always close 
 beside her. 
 
 Bradshaw looked down at the dog. 
 
 "Brave has taken a great fancy to you, Miss Norton. 
 He doesn't make friends readily." 
 
 "He knows I have a special liking for Airedales", 
 she remarked, stroking the head of the faithful canine 
 who turned adoring, soulful eyes up at her. 
 
 "Brave is a gentleman", said Bradshaw, "though 
 Chat's a word so often misused that it is almost trite. 
 But in the real meaning of the word, Brave is that. The 
 more you know him, the more you will see that." 
 
 "I quite agree with you already about Brave", she 
 hastened to say. "And Don Quixote", she turned slightly 
 to reach back and pat the head of the burro, following 
 along close back of them, "is an old dear." 
 
 "In his way, something of a gentleman also", said 
 Bradshaw. "At any rate, he means well. Up in the 
 mountains we are more prone to speak of a man as a 
 man, if he is a real one, instead of as a gentleman. 
 Somehow, the word 'gentleman' seems more appropriate 
 amidst real refinement and gentler actions, and silk 
 hats."
 
 268 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 The girl, with her sidelong glance, took quick survey 
 of the man walking beside her muscularly built and 
 bronzed, with close trimmed beard and manly, indeed, in 
 his mountain costume of corduroy, blue flannel shirt with 
 flowing tie, high laced boots and stiff -brimmed cowboy 
 hat which he wore tilted down over his eyes. 
 
 "Is refinement a matter of attire and location?" she 
 asked with a half smile. 
 
 The man laughed. 
 
 "Not at all. I expressed myself clumsily. I meant 
 that we mountain people perhaps are more blunt. But 
 we claim equal degree of sincerity. Sincerity is a qual- 
 ity which, like gold, is wherever you find it." 
 
 "And so is the quality of being a gentleman", said 
 the girl 
 
 "That is true", he agreed. "I remember once know- 
 ing a pugilist a fine looking, clean little chap he was. 
 I was in college at the time and his training quarters 
 were at a famous resort not so far away. Many of those 
 in school, who cared for athletics, went over to see him 
 train. He took a liking to me and confided in me, and 
 while the others thought him reserved almost to the point 
 of moroseness, I knew the reason for his reserve. It was 
 only that he did more thinking than they accredited him 
 with doing. One day I was in his dressing room just 
 after he had finished a work-out. We were there alone 
 and he looked very boyish sitting there on a bench in his 
 big dressing-robe, his boxing gloves beside him. The 
 light from the window behind him outlined his very 
 pleasing profile perfectly. He was training for the ban- 
 tam-weight championship fight at the time, but he spoke 
 very little if at all of it. We had been talking of the col- 
 lege and affairs there, and he was more interested in its 
 debating society than its athletics. He suddenly turned
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 269 
 
 to me and said something in a way I never will forget. 
 
 " 'One time', he said, 'in Denver, after I had made a 
 reputation as a boxer, some of the club boys, for a lark, 
 I suppose, though I didn't think so then, got me to tog up 
 in fashionable full dress and they took me with them to 
 a society function, but instead of introducing me as Kid 
 Jones' that wasn't his name, by the way 'they pre- 
 sented me as Mr. Arthur Jones and' I'll never forget 
 the look in the Kid's dark eyes as he spoke 'they 
 thought I was a gentleman.' " 
 
 There was a brief interval of silence. 
 
 "And so he was", went on Bradshaw. "It means hav- 
 ing that fine, elusive, yet steel-like quality of propriety. 
 The Kid had it and so have many men in towns and 
 mountains and everywhere else. Brave has it." 
 
 The girl laughed in a low, soft tone. 
 
 "I think you are right", she said. "Once up on a mine 
 road in Butte, a man, an utter stranger to me, stepped 
 in and protected me from an annoyance that was not so 
 serious as it was impudent. He was a man of real cour- 
 age and if he had that fine, elusive and steel-like quality 
 of propriety of which you have spoken, Mr. Williams, 
 then truly he must have been a real gentleman." 
 
 The girl, looking ahead of her, did not see the keen 
 glance the man directed at her, nor could she tell that 
 beneath the bronze of his face, the blood burned hotly. 
 
 At the door of the bungalow, Nip informed Bradshaw 
 of a telephone call, so Dan, excusing himself, left the girl. 
 
 At luncheon, Norton enthusiastically told of his walk 
 down to the lower camp and of what he had seen there. 
 
 "Incidentally", he said to Bradshaw, "down along 
 the main road, I caught a glimpse of three first class 
 specimens of the genus Direct Actionist. They may look
 
 270 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 worse than their bite, for I'll admit I did not get a very 
 good look at them." 
 
 "Itinerants", said Bradshaw. "We very seldom see 
 them up this way." But he did not tell his guests that 
 Paddy Skiff had telephoned to him of a report brought 
 to the foreman of three campers, not far from the main 
 road near where the branch to the lower camp joined it, 
 and that Jackson, who had gone down to look them over, 
 had come back with the word that they were "Red Mike" 
 Vignon and his henchmen, Wilkins and Snitch. 
 
 After lunch, Bradshaw left his guests to their own 
 devises while he went to the mine and had a talk with 
 Paddy Skiff. 
 
 "I don't want any trouble with Vignon and his two 
 hoboes right now", Dan told Paddy. "Try to keep an 
 eye on them if they come close to the mine or 'the shack', 
 or if they hang around too close to the lower camp. As 
 long as they stay where they are, or in that immediate 
 neighborhood, we won't say anything for the present, 
 but don't let them get near any of the workings. Later 
 on, I'll see about them if they are still around here. 
 Meantime, we won't take any chances. I know them too 
 well to let them run wild." 
 
 Returning to the bungalow, he rejoined the others for 
 the afternoon outing at a nearby mountain lake. Gayly 
 the party, mounted on horseback, and with the efficient 
 Nip coming along with the lunch in the buckboard, pro- 
 ceeded on its way. 
 
 The delight of the occasion was but typical of the 
 pleasant events that followed each other at and near 
 "Mountain View" in the following two days. 
 
 On the third morning after the outing at the lake, 
 Bradshaw went to inspect the lower camp. He had pro- 
 posed that, in the cooler period of the late afternoon,
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 271 
 
 they motor to town and about its environs, have supper 
 at the excellent hotel there and return to "Mountain 
 View" in the evening. So, with such understanding as 
 to the afternoon and evening entertainment, Bradshaw 
 had left for his visit to the lower camp. He might have 
 proceeded there on horseback, along part of the main 
 highway to town and then a branch road, but, as he said 
 to Norton, he had decided to go on foot over a mountain 
 trail that shortened the distance from "Mountain View" 
 to the lower camp by more than a mile and also afforded 
 a form of exercise that Dan liked. 
 
 Just before the lunch hour, Norton settled himself 
 down to reading in the living-room. 
 
 Margaret Hanlon busied herself with a letter at the 
 library table, while Walton went to the writing-den. 
 
 Mary, calling Brave, determined to achieve the glory 
 of making the climb to the top of the ridge, thinking of 
 the surprise her exploit would occasion the others. 
 
 Her way was along a path through the dense woods 
 that for some distance paralleled the main highway and 
 then swung away at almost right angles towards the 
 ridge. 
 
 Brave was darting into the brush here and there, 
 sometimes running along the path ahead of her and 
 again pacing sedately at her side. All at once, he thrust 
 forward his muzzle and pricked up his ears, the while 
 whining slightly. 
 
 Some one was coming along the pathway and as yet 
 screened from the girl's sight. When she came to the 
 next wide turn, she saw a man approaching. He would 
 have seen her had he been looking straight along the 
 path, but he was far more intent on peering at the bushes 
 at the side of the path as he came. 
 
 She stopped short in surprise as she recognized
 
 272 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Tharny. Whatever was he doing here? Why had he 
 come ? Was it because he could not remain away from 
 and she was smiling a little to herself even before she 
 had completed the thought. 
 
 Then she was on the very point of hailing him when 
 the bushes near him parted and a burly figure stepped 
 out to accost Tharny. It was Vignon. 
 
 Instinctively she stepped back. She quieted Brave 
 with a pat on his head and he licked her hand, but he 
 continued quivering as though with surpressed excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The two men were coming along now, and without 
 realizing her action, she stepped off the path, Brave at 
 her heels and the thick bushes concealed them. But she 
 heard their voices and presently could distinguish their 
 words. When nearly opposite her, they stopped and she 
 heard Tharny saying, "I had a good hunch this would 
 be the time to come out again to see you. But you want 
 to be sure you know your dope the last two times was 
 all wrong." 
 
 "It's all right this time we've got the lovely chance 
 to fix this guy so's his lady-love won't think he's such a 
 much." 
 
 "Cut it out", snapped Tharny. "Show me some ac- 
 tion. You've got a chance to show I made no mistake in 
 keeping you on the payroll." 
 
 "Payroll!" snorted Vignon. "A loan now an' then, 
 after that hundred a month proposition went bump, ain't 
 exactly bein' on any payroll." 
 
 "Well, those loans helped, especially after your 
 League idea blew up." 
 
 "Anyhow", came Vignon's retort, "I raised some hell 
 before it went bump." 
 
 "Get down to business", snapped the other. "There's
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 273 
 
 another hundred in this thing, you know, if you go 
 through with it." 
 
 "Oh I'm goin' through", the other assured him. "I 
 got a little axe to grind aroun' this place myself one of 
 the bunch roun' here threatened to have us run off." 
 
 "What's the layout?" asked Tharny. 
 
 "Me an' Wilkins an' Snitch jumps him when he's 
 comin' along the road from his lower camp. He gen'rally 
 walks it so Wilkins found out from a friend of his down 
 there. Then we beats him up good. What kind of a 
 showing can he make when he gets back to his house all 
 beat up ? Why the girl'll think he's nothin' but a rough- 
 neck see? Just a rough-house scrapper that's all." 
 
 "Where'd you get that idea about the girl part of 
 it?" demanded Tharny angrily. 
 
 Vignon laughed. "Snitch is no fool. He's seen you 
 out with her in Butte, an' up here it looks as if Williams 
 is the whole thing. I don't need no brick house to fall 
 on me. Of course if you want to get hunk with him for 
 some other reason, that's all right with me too, but I'll 
 bet a cootie if he loses out with her you won't weep." 
 
 "Never mind, Vignon that part's all right. You go 
 through with your end of it." Tharny spoke tensely. 
 "See that he gets all that's coming to him. Don't murder 
 him just beat him to a finish. Where are your pals?" 
 
 "I planted 'em down by the road they didn' need to 
 know ev'rything that's between us. That's why I told 
 you to come up along this way." 
 
 "Good enough. I'll go there and watch the fun from 
 the brush if it comes off soon enough. My horse is tied 
 in the woods a mile from the lower camp. I'll get back 
 to town after the show is over, if there's a performance 
 in reasonable time today, and then you come in and see 
 me back room of the same saloon as before."
 
 274 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 "Nix gimme the hundred now", Vignon demanded. 
 "I might want to make a speedy getaway." 
 
 There was a little more talk on that subject, but the 
 girl did not remain for it. She was making a detour 
 through the brush to regain the pathway and once on it, 
 she sped as fast as she could towards the bungalow. Her 
 thought was to have her brother telephone to the lower 
 camp and warn Dan. Yet, and a fear rose in her heart, 
 if Dan already had left the lower camp there would be 
 delay in telephoning there to have someone go after him, 
 and even then he might take the warning lightly and go 
 on to investigate. Her woman's nature rebelled against 
 the idea of his even risking the danger. 
 
 She was approaching the bungalow from the rear, 
 and as she came opposite the stable, she saw Dan's 
 favorite driving horse he had named The Arrow, har- 
 nessed to the light buckboard. John, the stableman, had 
 just finished harnessing up The Arrow and had gone to 
 the kitchen to ask Nip what he wanted brought from 
 town. 
 
 The moment the girl saw The Arrow, a new plan 
 flashed through her mind. She quickly untied the horse 
 and, climbing into the rig, took the lines. 
 
 The Arrow was just swinging into the roadway when 
 John came to the stable and he ran forward towards the 
 road, great annoyance plainly depicted on his face. 
 However, when he saw who was driving, he stopped and 
 a smile succeeded his deep frown. 
 
 "She can handle him she sure knows how to drive 
 and The Arrow likes her", he said to himself. "I sup- 
 pose she thinks that's a fine joke on me to go an* take 
 him for a minute." 
 
 Indeed, the stableman was very much disposed to- 
 ward this wonderfully pleasant young woman. Much to
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 275 
 
 his gratification and Dan's surprise, she had, soon after 
 her arrival, made ready friends with the spirited, glossy, 
 arch-necked Arrow who seemed in no more fear of her 
 than she of him, and he readily had manifested that from 
 her hand offerings of sugar were most delectable. 
 
 The buckboard was a trig little vehicle, and with 
 Mary Norton in it, was a very inconsiderable load for 
 such a powerful animal as The Arrow. But that spirited 
 horse well knew, by reason of that peculiar nerve-vibra- 
 tion which flashes along the reins from driver to equine 
 brain, that a capable person was in charge. 
 
 While Mary Norton was turning The Arrow into the 
 main road from the roadway connecting "Mountain 
 View" and the mine, Bradshaw, Paddy Skiff and Jackson 
 were fairly well along from the lower camp, they having 
 decided to come via the roadway. 
 
 The main road was a clever piece of engineering and 
 construction work. It had no precipitous grades, but fol- 
 lowed down along the mountain side at a gradual incline, 
 sometimes bordered on one side by a high, cliff -like side 
 of hill and on the other by a steep, tree-studded slope. 
 Then it ran fairly level, by reason of cuts and fills, across 
 a stretch of bulging mountain side. Almost for its 
 length to the foot of the mountain, the road was edged 
 with trees. 
 
 Coming down the more inclined parts of the road, 
 Mary kept the reins taut, aiding The Arrow to keep his 
 footing, but seeking to make the best time she could. 
 She was trembling with excitement for she must reach 
 Bradshaw before he came to where he was to be waylaid. 
 
 Reaching the last of the almost level stretches, that 
 went between arching trees and curved at its end to that 
 length of road along which Dan and his two companions 
 were coming, The Arrow broke into a faster gait now and
 
 276 BOftN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 again tossing his arched neck and shaking his head in 
 the exuberance of his spirit. 
 
 From the side of the road where the trees and bushes 
 grew thickest, there peered the evil face of Vignon, and 
 the instant that the startled girl beheld it, The Arrow, 
 noting the movement in the underbrush, shied. Then as 
 Vignon drew back, letting the parted bushes snap to- 
 gether, the frightened horse sprang forward, taking the 
 bit in his teeth. 
 
 The girl braced herself and pulled back on the reins 
 with all her unavailing strength, talking to The Arrow 
 in a low, firm voice in an effort to calm him. But the 
 animal plunged on, the light buckboard bounding from 
 side to side. One of the lines parted near the bit and 
 the maddened horse, free from all restraint, dashed 
 headlong on towards where Bradshaw, who had, at sight 
 of the oncoming rig, run ahead of his companions, was 
 half crouching for a spring on the outer rim of the road. 
 Paddy and Jackson had quickly lined up side by side 
 with outstretched arms as if to form a barrier across 
 the road, at the same time crying out, "Whoa ! whoa !" 
 
 In the brief moments that passed, before the horse 
 reached him, Bradshaw saw the girl half rise, as if with 
 the idea of trying to climb over the back of the buck- 
 board and drop to the ground, but the next lunge of the 
 vehicle threw her roughly forward, so that to save her- 
 self she had to crouch at the bottom of the rig. Brad- 
 shaw's purpose was to make the horse take the inner 
 side of the road, which was against a sharp rise, and 
 thus away from the danger of toppling over the outer 
 edge down the steep declivity below the point where he 
 waited, and, in the instant that he was drawing him- 
 self even closer together to hurl himself at the bridle, he 
 saw the dangling bit of rein on the side nearest him.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 277 
 
 Through his keenly active brain flashed the realization 
 that he could not hope to check the horse as he had 
 planned. But as the wildly galloping animal swerved 
 from him to the inner side of the road, Bradshaw 
 whirled and shot forward his right arm so that the tips 
 of his fingers barely closed over the top of the slender 
 iron rail at the back of the buckboard. It was a pre- 
 carious enough hold, but in desperation he made it do, 
 and half-dragged, half-running, he managed to close a 
 full grip around the bar. All that he was doing was 
 immeasurably quicker than could be the telling of it, 
 for one great purpose was electrifying him to be up 
 there in the buckboard with the girl to shield her, to 
 give her all there was of his man strength. 
 
 With his left hand now gripping the slender, iron 
 rod, he drew himself up so that he could grasp with his 
 right hand two of the little bars that held up the back 
 of the buckboard's seat. Quickly he was crouching be- 
 side the girl and leaning forward to get the other rein, 
 but it was just beyond his reach. He made as if to climb 
 over the dash-board to the back of the horse, but at the 
 next turn The Arrow left the road where nearly level 
 ground abutted it, ending at the embankment of a cut 
 through which ran the aerial tramway. 
 
 Another moment and Bradshaw was crouching be- 
 side the girl again, his left arm holding her close to him 
 as he drew from the holster under his coat a blunt, pow- 
 erful automatic revolver, and, pointing it straight before 
 him, only waited until the next second when the arched 
 neck of the horse came rearing into view and then he 
 fired. Again he fired and yet a third time, as The Ar- 
 row, sorely stricken, wavered and reeled, when Bradshaw 
 threw the weapon from him and clasping the girl in both 
 his arms held her tightly. He caught only a fleeting
 
 278 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 glimpse of The Arrow dropping forward dying and 
 then darkness engulfed him as the buckboard splintered 
 atop horse and tangled harness. 
 
 When he opened his eyes, Bradshaw was at one side 
 of the wreckage and the girl, unhurt, was kneeling be- 
 side him, wiping the grime from his face. He tried smil- 
 ing up at her, a rather painful process for his somewhat 
 bruised face. 
 
 At any rate, he asked, "Are you all right, Mary?" 
 and directly lost sight of her face as blackness again 
 swept over him. 
 
 Paddy and Jackson came running up. 
 
 Dan was fully restored to consciousness by the time 
 he had been taken to the lower camp, and when Norton, 
 Walton and Margaret arrived as quickly as they could 
 be summoned, he was standing up declaring repeatedly 
 that he only had sustained some bruises and a few 
 scratches. 
 
 Norton took his sister in his arms crushing her to 
 him, and when he let her go there were tears in his 
 eyes. From her brother's arms she went to those of 
 Margaret Hanlon, and Norton grasped Bradshaw's hand 
 and looked at him in a way that revealed to the latter the 
 depth of the brother's feelings more than could words. 
 
 That evening, when Bradshaw and his guests were 
 gathered in the big, cheerful living room of Mountain 
 View, Dan was saying, "And now, ladies and gentlemen, 
 let us be cheerfully thankful thankful and cheerful." 
 
 His tone and manner did much to dispel the gloom 
 that the shock had occasioned and the fear that gripped 
 their hearts whenever thought came of the possibilities 
 that might have ensued. 
 
 When they would have praised him, Bradshaw sought 
 to evade any appearance of heroism by declaring that
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 279 
 
 had he not been in the way, The Arrow would have kept 
 to the road and, doubtless, quickly would have come to 
 his senses. 
 
 These were not morbid people, so they did not dwell 
 to marked extent on the details of the accident. 
 
 It is often the manner of men and women who come 
 from fighting, daring and doing stock to conceal, when 
 they deem it needful, the deepest of emotions beneath a 
 surface of quiet, even cheerfulness always steadiness. 
 They usually are the sort whose ancestors smiled when 
 death stared them in the face and so helped inculcate 
 the theory that a miss is as good as a mile. 
 
 The members of the "Mountain View" house-party 
 retired early that evening and, in the seclusion of the 
 cabin, Walton again spoke to Bradshaw of the runaway. 
 
 "Dan, Lad", said the newspaperman, as he sat beside 
 Bradshaw on the edge of a bunk and put his arm across 
 his friend's shoulders, "I won't speak words of praise to 
 you. You know what I think what we all think of your 
 brave action. You saved a wonderful girl I don't need 
 to tell you that. You did a man's part you proved 
 yourself the man you always have been and are. You 
 showed remarkable presence of mind." 
 
 "Thanks, Old Man", said Bradshaw quietly, and that 
 was all. 
 
 The next morning when Dan saw Paddy Skiff at the 
 mine office he spoke a few words to him. 
 
 "Sure an' it's all bin tended to", the foreman assured 
 him, and by that he meant that the body of The Arrow 
 had been buried and the wreckage of the buckboard and 
 harness burned. 
 
 During Dan's absence from the bungalow, Norton 
 conferred with the girls and Walton. 
 
 "Mr. Williams not only has placed Mary and me
 
 280 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 under a great obligation to him", Norton said, "but he 
 has tried to make us all happy while here as his guests. 
 Now during these last couple of days of our stay here, 
 let us continue to be cheerful." 
 
 And to that, the others heartily agreed. 
 
 That evening, when Dan was coming across the 
 clearing from the cabin, Mary intercepted him. 
 
 "I've been wanting an opportunity to see you alone", 
 she informed him. "The Arrow ran away because he 
 was frightened. A man in the bushes a most villainous 
 man " 
 
 He gently interrupted her. 
 
 "I can imagine who he was, Miss Norton he is a 
 thorough rascal, a real red-anarchist and has not the 
 slightest love for me. In fact, I know he has made 
 threats, but they are vaporings and won't materialize. 
 I've known for several days that he's been loitering 
 around here. Do not give yourself the slightest uneasi- 
 ness about him for we are keeping close track of him and 
 his two companions. They are not going to be around 
 here much longer. Please, I beg of you, do not give your- 
 self the least concern about him. We are prepared to 
 handle him and the other two at any time and we are on 
 our guard all the time. In fact Paddy Skiff, Jackson and 
 myself were scouting along the road just to get sight of 
 them." 
 
 The girl said no more and she was thankful he had 
 told her that. To her it seemed that anything she now 
 might tell him of what had caused her to drive The Ar- 
 row would appear utterly and cheaply melodramatic. 
 He had thought that she had merely meant to come for 
 him with The Arrow so that he might ride to the bunga- 
 low, and she would not disillusion him. 
 
 Only once again did Mary speak to Bradshaw of the
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 281 
 
 runaway and the rescue. That was on the final evening 
 of the house party's visit, when she and Dan were out 
 on the veranda, the moonlight casting its spell over the 
 mountain scenery. 
 
 "Mr. Williams", she said, "I want you to know that 
 that what you did at the time of the runaway always 
 will be remembered by me." 
 
 For a moment or two neither of them spoke and then 
 Dan said, "I'm sure, Miss Norton, that The Arrow didn't 
 really mean to do it. He wasn't a vicious animal." 
 
 There came to him a fleeting memory of a glossy 
 brown, arched neck pierced by the powerful bullets of 
 an automatic revolver. And he added, "But he had to 
 pay the price of his folly." 
 
 Suddenly Bradshaw turned to the girl. 
 
 "Had it been my life for yours I would gladly have 
 given it", he added. "I" 
 
 Then Norton, Margaret and Walton came out on the 
 veranda. 
 
 Not again did Bradshaw have occasion to speak to the 
 girl alone, nor, in fact, did he seek it. But he said to 
 her as he bade farewell to his departing guests at the 
 depot in town, "Next week I will be in Butte and I hope 
 to see you." 
 
 "I'll expect you then", she said smilingly. 
 
 To Margaret Hanlon, who had announced that she 
 was going to leave Butte almost immediately upon her 
 arrival there, to join her mother at San Francisco for a 
 journey to Honolulu, he remarked, "You mustn't forget 
 your friends in Montana, Miss Hanlon, when you are far 
 away." 
 
 "I never will forget them", she declared, and then 
 more impulsively, "and I'm going to say again, Mr. Wil- 
 liams, that I never will forget my delightful visit at
 
 282 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 'Mountain View', nor your brave act what a debt of 
 gratitude we all owe you!" 
 
 In that moment, Bradshaw had a glimpse of the girl 
 as she always had been meant to be free from even 
 slightest affectation and trace of hauteur, which she had 
 acquired in the course of her cosmopolitan career. 
 
 Norton again exacted a promise from Dan that he 
 soon would come to Butte, and with Walton, Bradshaw 
 merely shook hands, both gripping tightly. 
 
 The departing visitors were on the back platform of 
 the train as it began to draw away from the depot, Mary 
 on the side nearest where Dan was standing. He swung 
 up on the car step for an instant and she held out her 
 hand to him for a final clasp. 
 
 Then he stood watching the train, waving as his 
 friends waved to him, until they had gone from his sight. 
 
 En route to the mine, he roused himself from his 
 thoughts as he came to the place where The Arrow had 
 plunged from the road towards the embankment and, 
 stopping his automobile there, he got out and walked 
 over to where the horse had gone down. 
 
 "Strange", he said to himself as his eyes searched 
 the ground, "that neither Paddy nor Jackson could find 
 where I threw my automatic. I should have bought an- 
 other one before coming home today but I'll get a new 
 one tomorrow."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 THE FIGHT IN THE GLEN 
 
 Bradshaw went to town next day and bought a new 
 automatic revolver, for though he had ample store of 
 firearms, he liked the kind he could wear in his flat 
 holster under his left arm. He also attended to other 
 business, and before he left for his return trip to the 
 mine, he went to a telephone booth and got into commu- 
 nication with Paddy Skiff with whom he held a conver- 
 sation of some minutes duration. 
 
 At the point where the main road was joined by the 
 roadway from the lower camp, a solitary horseman 
 awaited Bradshaw who, when he came close enough, held 
 up his hand as a signal that he recognized Paddy Skiff. 
 
 "All properly fixed?" asked Bradshaw as he stopped 
 his automobile near Paddy and got out. 
 
 By way of reply, Paddy drew back the left side of 
 his coat for an instant showing the handle of his revol- 
 ver, and the next moment staring at Bradshaw with 
 lower jaw slightly sagging in surprise. 
 
 "Yer whiskers yer beard ye've shaved it off!" he 
 exclaimed. "Yer sure enough Dan Bradshaw again!" 
 
 "That I am", said Dan. "I thought it was time to get 
 back to the Bradshaw part of the name for keeps." 
 
 "An* then that's what ye meant when ye sed 'Red 
 Mike' an' his two shpalpeens would know ye alright?" 
 
 "Exactly. I don't want them to have the slightest
 
 284 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 doubt about it. Just one thing more if you feel the 
 least hesitancy, Paddy, about what I told you over the 
 telephone, say so and I'll understand." And when Paddy 
 would have spoken, Bradshaw quickly added, "I know 
 perfectly that it is not a question of loyalty or bravery, 
 Paddy Skiff, but you must remember too that there is a 
 'Missus' now and" 
 
 "An* I'm proud to say" Paddy broke in, drawing him- 
 self up "that the Missus Pathrick Skiff would disown 
 me if she thought fer a moment I would back out of this 
 proposition." 
 
 That point having been definitely settled, Bradshaw 
 turned his attention to the business at hand. 
 
 "Where is the place?" he asked. 
 
 "Not far from the main road ; over in a gully." 
 
 Paddy dismounted and tied his horse to a tree 
 screened by a clump of bushes. 
 
 With Paddy as guide, the men made their way 
 through the heavy timber and finally to a flat-bottomed 
 gully well surrounded with trees and underbrush and 
 carpeted with springy turf. 
 
 At a small camp-fire near the center of the hollow, 
 half-reclined three figures. 
 
 Bradshaw and Paddy stepped into the gully and cov- 
 ered the three men at the fire with their revolvers held 
 slightly extended just above the hip. 
 
 "Throw up your hands!" Bradshaw ordered sharply 
 as the three sprang to their feet. 
 
 Two of the men, Wilkins and Snitch, elevated their 
 hands as far as they could reach, but Vignon, with a 
 snarl that drew back his lips from his teeth as would an 
 animal, made as if to sweep back his coat. 
 
 "Put 'em up, Vignon no fooling!" ordered Brad- 
 shaw in a tone that was coolly menacing, and reluctantly
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 285 
 
 the other raised his big, gnarled hands to the height of 
 his broad, thick shoulders. 
 
 "Bradshaw!" he sneered, "I thought it was you when 
 I seen Paddy Skiff an' Jackson an' a few of yer other 
 guys 'roun' here I thought so." 
 
 "We won't discuss your thoughts on the subject", said 
 Bradshaw briskly. "Paddy, search those other fellows." 
 
 And as Paddy Skiff took from each of the other two 
 a cheap revolver of bulldog pattern, Bradshaw relieved 
 Vignon of an automatic. 
 
 Bradshaw and Paddy stepped back. 
 
 "Keep them covered until I dispose of these guns", 
 said Dan to Paddy, and Bradshaw placed his own weapon 
 back in its place. He took the two bulldog revolvers 
 which Paddy handed him, emptied out their bullets and, 
 tossing them on the ground, turned his attention to the 
 automatic he had taken from Vignon. 
 
 "So you found my gun", he remarked to "Red Mike". 
 He slipped it into his pocket. "Thanks for finding it." 
 Then he addressed the trio of Direct Actionists. "You 
 fellows can put your hands down now", which they pro- 
 ceeded to do, Paddy still keeping his weapon in position 
 for quick use if need be. "Now you fellows listen to me", 
 Bradshaw continued. "You have been snooping around 
 this place entirely too long." He spoke tensely and he 
 fixed Vignon with eyes that were steady and fearless be- 
 neath lowered brows. "I know your game wherever you 
 go. You've had just about long enough to get the lay of 
 the land around here and your next move would be mis- 
 chief. Your request of Paddy Skiff for work and your 
 applying down at the lower camp, were stalls just 
 bluffs. You don't want work anywhere. I know what 
 you want. Some of the men in this camp, who know 
 you, have complained about your being around here. If
 
 286 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 you were permitted to hang around here they might take 
 a notion to get busy and see that you didn't." 
 
 Vignon was still scowling at him. 
 
 "You mean they think they'd run us out, hey? Well 
 we ain't the runnin' out kind see?" 
 
 But Bradshaw went on as if he had not heard him. 
 
 "The purpose of this little meeting is this You fel- 
 lows are going away from here. That's a personal prop- 
 osition with me. As far as you're concerned, Vignon, I 
 guess your Shanghai-ing me was a real benefit after all, 
 and so I'll let that part of it go. But you and these two 
 fellows with you can't stay around as close to my place 
 as this." 
 
 Wilkins and Snitch kept glancing at Vignon, evi- 
 dently preferring to let him be the spokesman for them. 
 
 "Very kind of you", sneered Vignon, "to tell us what 
 we kin an' can't do, Mister Bradshaw", emphasizing the 
 "Mister" sarcastically. "When you was hot-footin' 
 'round Carty's you wasn' such a high-flier, but now" 
 
 Bradshaw curtly interrupted him. 
 
 "I don't want your talk. I'm trying to give you the 
 best of it by handling your case myself instead of letting 
 the men at the mine take it up and give you some real 
 rough treatment. I'll go this far I'll see that you're 
 not molested and that you are given a ride down to the 
 depot in town. I'll buy each of you a ticket to Butte or 
 Spokane and give you each twenty-five dollars for ex- 
 penses on the way." 
 
 These words brought a half-smile to Snitch's face as 
 if the plan appealed to him. But Wilkins, taking his cue 
 from Vignon, continued his surly look. 
 
 As for Vignon, he thrust forward his evil face and 
 fairly spat out his words. 
 
 "Keep yer damn money", he snarled. "You ain't man
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 287 
 
 'nough to run me off. You never was man 'nough to do 
 anythin' with me. You sucked 'round bosses in Butte. 
 You thought you was somethin' in the League but you 
 wasn'. You hung 'round Klemner's" 
 
 But he paused in his tirade when he saw Bradshaw 
 throw off his coat and hat and unbuckle his holster and 
 hand it to Paddy Skiff. 
 
 "Now Mr. 'Red Mike' Vignon", Dan said, rolling up 
 the sleeves of his blue flannel shirt, "you've reached the 
 end of your rope." He addressed his next words to 
 Paddy, but did not take his eyes off Vignon. "Paddy, 
 see that there's no interference from those two bums" 
 Snitch smiled broadly at that and was evidently pleased 
 at the prospect of some excitement, while Wilkins 
 scowled the more "and Mister 'Red Mike', Direct Ac- 
 tionist Dynamiter Vignon" he seemed to want to sting 
 Vignon with his words "and I'll get busy." He took a 
 step forward towards Vignon. "I call your bluff or I'll 
 slap your face and kick you out of here." 
 
 Vignon sv/ore, threw his hat on the ground and fol- 
 lowed it with his coat and holster. 
 
 Paddy motioned to Wilkins and Snitch to move back 
 and he, himself, did likewise, leaving Bradshaw and Vig- 
 non facing each other for battle. 
 
 Response to the battle call is more or less inherent in 
 all human beings. And they all fight each and every 
 one of them when the fight response comes crashing 
 through veneer of patience, training and reasoning re- 
 straint. It is said that even the self-abasing worm will 
 turn to show its mite of fighting valor at a certain point. 
 
 And whereas the cave-man might have sprung to 
 unreasoning, maddened fighting at merely slight provo- 
 cation, his male descendents manifest much of that sort 
 of disregard for consequences when once they have been
 
 288 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 sufficiently aroused and the fighting response comes. 
 
 Vignon, illiterate, uncouth, with cave-man propensity 
 to hate and fight very near the surface, was the kind to 
 plunge into battle with blind, ferocious, unreasoning 
 anger. 
 
 Bradshaw, educated, trained, and with the cave-man 
 inclination to hate and fight very much deeper from the 
 surface, was the kind to plunge into battle with keen, 
 ferocious but reasoning anger. 
 
 The fight of these two men in the tree-shaded, brush- 
 guarded, flat-bottomed gully was one of definite purpose. 
 No desire here to score technical points by reason of box- 
 ing art, but to land jarring, hurtful, crushing blows to 
 punish, disable. 
 
 A man like Vignon might have been escorted away 
 from the place at the point of guns. He might 
 have been imprisoned. He even might have been 
 lushed at a whipping-post. And still his fighting 
 spirit would not have been broken he still would have 
 returned brazen, defiant and as dangerous as ever to the 
 very place from which he had been driven. But brutish 
 though he was, defiant and dangerous, he was instinc- 
 tively cognizant of that unwritten code, which has it that 
 a man beaten in a fair, stand-up fist fight is in a way duty 
 bound, though his spirit still may remain unbroken, his 
 fighting ability still good and his status as a man and 
 f ghter still unimpaired, to accede to the wish of the man 
 \/ho has defeated him with regard to whatever question 
 is at issue. 
 
 So Vignon recognized, as did the others there, that if 
 Bradshaw was his conqueror, he would have to do as 
 Bradshaw had said he must and go. Thus he would 
 obey a code that is one of those vague, illogical and yet
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 289 
 
 powerful laws of man-nature, smacking, perhaps, of a 
 certain kind of chivalry. 
 
 As for Bradshaw he was that sort of man who does 
 not want any other to face a danger in his behalf that 
 he, himself, would be unwilling to confront. His peculiar 
 advantage over his antagonist was that finer courage 
 which Vignon did not possess and which really is more 
 than physical prowess. 
 
 Bradshaw, in an easy yet sufficiently tense boxer's 
 pose, was ready with right and left fists. 
 
 Vignon stood more solidly planted and evidently in- 
 tending to utilize ponderous, crushing swings. 
 
 A trim built athlete, who once won reputation as a 
 boxer, declared that his method of defeating a larger, 
 stronger and slower opponent, was to make him miss, 
 the theory being that the larger man would wear himself 
 out through his own exertions. 
 
 Bradshaw followed a similar method for an interval. 
 Suddenly he feinted at Vignon's face and avoided a heavy 
 right-arm swing by a turn of his head, but Vignon exe- 
 cuted a trick for which Bradshaw might well have been 
 prepared had he not been too intent on countering. 
 Vignon crashed his right fist with a back-hand swing 
 against Bradshaw's head that would have ended the fight 
 had it landed a trifle lower. Bradshaw stepped back, 
 shaking his head to clear it and then returned to the 
 combat. Dan jabbed, countered and used uppercut tac- 
 tics with all the scientific precision he could command. 
 Vignon tried to make effective all his rough-and-tumble 
 methods in which he was well versed and which had 
 made him a feared saloon-fighter in Butte. 
 
 And as surely as the one man was superior in mental- 
 ity, in fine courage and determination to the other, so 
 surely did Bradshaw begin to inflict grueling punish-
 
 290 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 ment on the desperate Vignon. The blows he landed 
 were not wide-swung, but were delivered with a snap 
 that cut and bruised. The very fact that Vignon began 
 glancing to one side and the other as if almost at bay 
 and seeking outside help he knew not from where, was 
 an indication to Dan that the fight was coming to an end. 
 Bradshaw, eager to terminate the battle, repeatedly bat- 
 tered Vignon's jaw, trying to connect with that certain 
 point that is vulnerable even to the impact of a light fist. 
 Vignon tried to clinch Bradshaw around the neck, but 
 Dan avoided him. Then the miner made as if to go into 
 a clinch with Vignon and, as the latter raised his arms 
 again, Bradshaw stepped forward with his right foot 
 simultaneously sending in his right fist just below Vig- 
 non's left shoulder just enough of a blow to send the 
 other slightly off his balance, that being Bradshaw' s pur- 
 pose in using this shift. In the instant when Vignon 
 was recovering his equilibrium, Bradshaw, with a force- 
 ful swing of his body, whipped over his almost fully ex- 
 tended left arm, and his left fist landed solidly on the 
 very point of Vignon's jaw which jarred the heavy man 
 from head to foot, sending a paralysis along the nerves 
 to his brain and toppling him over. 
 
 Vignon was not unconscious and, beyond a slight 
 stiffness of the lower jar, was himself again physically 
 in a moment or two after striking the ground, but he 
 did not rise. 
 
 "Get up, Vignon", commanded Bradshaw breathing 
 deeply in what he thought was only to be an interval of 
 rest. 
 
 Vignon did not get up even then, but raised himself 
 slowly on an elbow. 
 
 "Well what d'ya want?" he growled sullenly. It 
 was his admission of defeat.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 291 
 
 Wilkins scowled as before, but Snitch laughed. 
 
 "Hell the yellah's showin' in him", Snitch re- 
 marked. Then with much disgust, "I taut dare wuz yel- 
 lah in him." And to Bradshaw, "I got tuh give it tuh 
 yuh agin yer a all right guy. Dat big stiff", pointing 
 to Vignon, "he ain't." 
 
 Bradshaw laughed shortly and turned to Paddy Skiff 
 who had put away his revolver. 
 
 "Well I guess that's all", said Dan. Then to Vig- 
 non, "You don't have to lie there for the rest of the 
 day." 
 
 Vignon got up slowly, picked up his hat, coat and 
 holster and darted a malignant look at Snitch. 
 
 "Do we get our guns back?" asked Wilkins. 
 
 "Not so as you can notice it", Bradshaw curtly in- 
 formed him, picking up his hat and coat. 
 
 "Say let me have mine", requested Snitch. "I'm tru 
 wid dat big stiff" indicating Vignon with a contempt- 
 uous jerk of his thumb while 'Red Mike' glowered at him 
 "an' I wan' tuh beat it fer th' railroad alone an' not 
 take no chansis wid him an' dis fellah", indicating Wil- 
 kins. 
 
 "Give him his gun, Paddy", said Bradshaw. 
 
 Paddy took one of the bulldog revolvers from the 
 ground and gave it to Snitch. 
 
 "T'anks", said Snitch pocketing the weapon. "I feel 
 better now." 
 
 "Just a minute", and Bradshaw took a wallet from 
 the inside pocket of his coat and extracted two bills from 
 it, holding the currency out to Snitch. "Take these, and 
 I would suggest that you leave now." 
 Snitch grinned and took the money. 
 "I'll blow fer town I feel bettern' ever", and soon 
 he was lost to sight among the trees.
 
 292 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Some hours later he did not feel so well. 
 
 Vignon and Wilkins came up with him at a lonely 
 water tank where he was waiting the coming of a Butte 
 bound freight train and they despoiled him of the bull- 
 dog revolver and his money, leaving him beaten and 
 bruised behind the water tank when they swung aboard 
 the freight train that stopped there half an hour later. 
 
 "Here you", said Vignon to Wilkins as they crouched 
 in an empty cattle car, 'put this in yer shoe", and he 
 handed him one of the bills. "I'll keep the other one an' 
 this gat" he took the squat, bulldog revolver partly 
 from a side pocket of his coat and let it drop back in 
 again "I'll keep fer fuchure ref'rence."
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 DREAMS AND THE GIRL 
 
 On the very first night of their return home, Mary 
 Norton told her brother of the incidents that had led up 
 to the affair of The Arrow. 
 
 He took her in his arms. 
 
 "Why you plucky little thing !" he exclaimed over and 
 over again. "And to think Tharny of all men, Tharny ! 
 It's amazing simply amazing! Well, that settles Mr. 
 Tharny !" 
 
 And the next evening when Tharny, perfectly 
 groomed, at his best in manner, and carrying a box of 
 roses, rang the doorbell of the Norton home, he was 
 shown into the library where Norton awaited him. 
 
 From that interview, Tharny went an astonished and 
 a bitterly enraged man. Never again would he see the 
 interior of the Norton home. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 When Dan Bradshaw stood in Walton's office one 
 morning, about two weeks later, there was nothing other 
 than the healthful and becoming bronze of his face to 
 indicate that he had been spending so many of his days 
 in the open among the mountains, for now, in place of 
 his mountain costume, he was trim in his well-fitting 
 suit of gray which, so the newspaperman remarked as 
 he took in Dan from his smart shoes to his neat blue tie, 
 not omitting notice of the gray Fedora hat he held in his
 
 294 BOKN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 hand together with his gray kid-gloves, made him a 
 splendid advertisement for whoever his tailor might be. 
 
 "So I can't prevail on you to linger here a few mo- 
 ments more?" asked Walton. "Supposing then that you 
 come back in an hour and we have lunch together." 
 
 "Agreed. Meantime I'll go and attend to that busi- 
 ness I have on hand." 
 
 The business to which Bradshaw referred took him to 
 a telephone booth from which he put in a call for the 
 Norton residence. 
 
 To the maid who answered, Dan stated he would like 
 to speak to Miss Norton, requesting the maid to say that 
 a friend from the mountains was at the telephone. As 
 the maid carried his message to Mary Norton, the heart 
 of this man, who had met and overcome some mighty 
 strenuous obstacles and who even with scarcely a qualm 
 had fought a man to a finish in a mountain gully, accel- 
 erated its pace, especially when, quite unexpectedly, a 
 clear voice of a quality that always stirred him deeply, 
 came to him. 
 
 "And so you have taken sufficient time to leave your 
 mountains", she said, after they had exchanged greet- 
 ings. 
 
 "I had meant to be here some time ago", he declared, 
 "but there were things that conspired to detain me. But 
 tell me, what is far more important than anything else 
 How are you?" 
 
 "Just splendid. And you?" 
 
 "As well as ever. And your brother?" 
 
 "His usual good self. DeWitt is in Anaconda today, 
 but I think he will be back on the night train. When 
 am I going to see you?" 
 
 "That is what I called up to find out. Can it be this 
 afternoon?"
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 295 
 
 "At two." 
 
 "At two, then." 
 
 When they had ended their telephonic conversation, 
 Dan first went to a florist's from where, presently, was 
 sent to the Norton home a box of Mary's favorite pink 
 roses and violets, after which he attended to other mat- 
 ters, and then proceeded to the newspaper office. 
 
 Dan and Walton lunched and, for a time thereafter, 
 the miner visited with his friend in the latter's sanctum. 
 
 "Never get tired of telling you how good you look to 
 me as your former self", Walton said, eyeing the other 
 closely and with that look of fraternal regard which 
 showed his feeling for Bradshaw. "By the way how 
 will the mining world take the acquisition of the M. N., 
 by Daniel Bradshaw?" 
 
 "The mining world, as you call it, if it thinks of it at 
 all, will not know whether Robinson Crusoe sold the 
 mine to Daniel Bradshaw, or if said Bradshaw seized the 
 mine a long time ago, or if Williams sold out, or what. 
 The boys at the mine, if they noticed it at all, didn't care 
 whether I had a beard or not, and as for the grievance 
 committee, consisting of three of the miners Jackson 
 originally brought to the place with him they got on to 
 the fact some weeks ago that Williams and Bradshaw 
 were one and the same, and they didn't even comment on 
 it. They seemed to think the use of the name of Wil- 
 liams was merely a matter of mine business convenience, 
 just as some firms use the names of persons no longer 
 connected with those enterprises in any way." 
 
 "That's right", said Walton. "Many persons think 
 there is a Van Stanley of the so-called Van Stanley inter- 
 ests when, as a matter of fact, that name always is signed 
 per somebody else, for the Van Stanley of that big con- 
 cern is Mr. Walter Blumenshein," He looked keenly at
 
 296 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 Bradshaw. "Anyhow, there is no one to whom you need 
 make the slightest apology about it." 
 
 Dan smiled at him. 
 
 "Explanation, perhaps, but apology never!" He 
 arose from the comfortable leather office chair and 
 picked up his hat and gloves. "Until we meet again", he 
 said with a slight bow to Walton who was leaning back 
 in his swivel chair looking at him. 
 
 But astute as was the newspaperman, he did not be- 
 gin to guess that beneath the seeming self-possession of 
 this erect and most pleasing appearing man before him, 
 there was a tumult of emotion actuating a strongly 
 pumping heart. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The deep-toned chime of the Grandfather's clock in 
 the reception hall of the Norton home was indicating the 
 hour of two o'clock when Bradshaw rang the door-bell. 
 
 Presently he was standing looking out of a window 
 of the drawing-room, while the maid went to inform 
 Mary of his arrival. At the moment of entering the 
 room he had noted that the flowers he had sent her 
 were arranged in several vases. 
 
 Came the sound of a door closing and the light step 
 of a woman. He turned to behold her, a vision of loveli- 
 ness in a cool, pink linen dress, girlishly made as befitted 
 her, and at the waist some of his violets. Her hair was 
 parted slightly at one side and waved back, as he best 
 liked it, to a loose and gracefully arranged knot. 
 
 She came forward with hand extended to welcome 
 him, as he, too, stepped to meet her, when she caught full 
 view of his face and paused, uncertain and surprised. 
 Her hand fell to her side. 
 
 "Why I I " she began and hesitated. 
 
 His direct look met hers.
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 297 
 
 "You are not mistaken", he said quietly, and though 
 she knew the tone of his voice as that of the mountain 
 man, she studied him intently and waited for him to con- 
 tinue. 
 
 "Miss Norton, I am D. Williams and I am Dan Brad- 
 shaw." 
 
 "Yes, I see", she said with the admirable self-control 
 characteristic of her, "that you are Dan Mr. Brad- 
 shaw." 
 
 It was as if she were pondering for a fleeting mo- 
 ment why she had not seen that before, but then she only 
 had met Dan Bradshaw, as the man of that name, three 
 times, and at each of those times for a brief period. She 
 remembered Dan Bradshaw best as she had seen him up 
 on the mine road above Carty's two years before, and 
 recognize him now she most certainly did. 
 
 "Are you sorry?" he asked gently. 
 
 The pink rose hue of her cheeks deepened, and it 
 might have been that the girl had an undefined feeling 
 of gladness in knowing that the man of the mine road 
 and the man of the mountains were one and the same. 
 
 "It is all so so " she began. 
 
 "I know", he said. "It is melodramatic and bewilder- 
 ing, but it had to be told." 
 
 "Yes, that is true", she said, and while there still was 
 a questioning look in her eyes, on her lips was a faint 
 trace of smile, more a wistfulness not without pathetic 
 appeal, with which the girl conveyed to him the thought 
 that he had wounded her pride deeply, perhaps not so 
 much because of the subterfuge he had thought neces- 
 sary in gaining her friendship by a change of name, as 
 by failing to acknowledge her womanly discrimination 
 and ability to judge his real merit. 
 
 "I want to tell you why it had to be done", he went
 
 298 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 on, holding her closely attentive by the quiet power in 
 his tone and his direct look. 
 
 She placed a hand lightly at her throat. 
 
 "Was it necessary to not to have told me before?" 
 she asked, looking at him bravely. "I think I would have 
 understood, and I would have been truthworthy." 
 
 "You hurt me when you say that", he declared. "I 
 want to tell you why, if I can. I don't just know how to 
 say it I am fearfully bunglesome. Won't you sit down 
 and let me tell you ?" 
 
 "I will", she answered with a little nod, and seated 
 herself on a divan so that he continued facing her, his 
 hand resting on the back of the chair beside him. 
 
 "You don't want me to wade through a lot of story, 
 I know", he said, speaking rather quickly and as intently 
 as before. "You doubtless guessed what I was when 
 you first saw me, and there was nothing dishonorable, 
 about me then I can assure you of that. I was a hard 
 working mucker in a mine. I needed work and I needed 
 opportunity for other things too I would like to tell 
 you all about them sometime I know you would under- 
 stand. And I would like to tell you all about my boy- 
 hood in California and of my people" he held his head 
 up proudly "they were of the best. I would like to tell 
 you of my Uncle Sim and Aunt Ruth, I call them, though 
 they are not related to me who brought me up and sent 
 me to college; of my years after that hard working 
 and cheerless days on a cattle boat and in other hard 
 places, and of my coming to Butte to work onward and 
 upward. And I can't tell you it would be too long and 
 you wouldn't want to hear now of my my career here 
 and what came of it. But I will tell you how I came to 
 leave Butte because I was hit on the head and thrown
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 299 
 
 into a box car and run out just as if I were well, I 
 had just about struck the bottom, I guess." 
 
 He, seemingly, had no desire to spare himself. 
 
 "Then I came to where I was near the mountains 
 my mountains, I call them now. I think you know some- 
 thing of what has happened since then. I wanted to 
 fight my way up with a fair chance, unhampered by any 
 possible obstacles, and so I became D. Williams the Wil- 
 liams part is my middle name and always with the in- 
 tention of telling you all about it if the time ever came 
 when I could do so. And the time has come. How could 
 I have come to know you as I have, had I gone on as Dan 
 Bradshaw? Don't you see? Surely you do. Your 
 brother would never have permitted it. I know men 
 they honor other men who make good, and real men like 
 your brother overlook past mistakes too but even he, 
 with all his broad-mindedness, would have fought shy of 
 me, I think, at least to the extent of not letting me be- 
 come a friend of his sister and thus one to be welcomed 
 at his home." 
 
 "I don't think that", the girl said in a low tone. 
 
 He took a short step nearer to her, looking down at 
 her slightly bowed head. 
 
 "From the time on the mine road up there on the Hill 
 you've been the one and only girl" and while he spoke 
 gently and smiled, there was a tenseness to his jaw. 
 "You are the realization of all my dreams of the ideal 
 woman. When I was unworthy even to think of you, you 
 were the influence that was impelling me towards my 
 best. You are my best influence now. I've tried to 
 climb up to you from the very depths. Up there in the 
 mountains I can't tell you what I want to say about 
 what the thought of you meant to me in those days. I 
 worked early and late even in an irrigation ditch to
 
 300 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 get money for a grubstake, so I could go into the hills. 
 Why the dreaming and the hoping even made it pos- 
 sible for me to state my mining plans boldly to a banker 
 in his own private office and your kindly influence must 
 have been with me and for me, because he listened to me 
 and favored my request." 
 
 She looked up at him. 
 
 "Mr. Bradshaw, I indeed feel I owe you a great debt 
 of gratitude" but he would not let her proceed. 
 
 I know what you want to say, but I cannot listen to 
 your telling me you owe me anything, when it is all 
 so much the other way around, and I owe everything to 
 you." 
 
 "But you are successful", she said. "You have arrived 
 at where you more than ever are assured of your place 
 in the world, not only because of your mining success, 
 but because of your wonderful mine cage invention." 
 
 In his masculine blindness he did not realize that the 
 girl was clinging to that great and wonderful attribute 
 with which womankind blesses man the never weary- 
 ing desire to give her best thought to him, to give him 
 actual aid. It is the mother instinct. Had he come to 
 her the same clean and upright man he was, but having 
 recently failed to win success or having been disappoint- 
 ed in some great and, to him, vital enterprise, she 
 might have yielded on the instant to his entreaty so that 
 she could confer her womanly solace on him, take him 
 within the shelter of her arms as a woman does a 
 bruised, hurt boy, and re-inspire him. The man, in the 
 full vigor of his fighting strength and strong mentality, 
 likes to go forth to fight in life's battles for the woman 
 he loves he wants to be the provider, the killer of deer 
 for her. But what of his vaunted strength and his men- 
 tality when his spirit weakens, when his courage falters
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 301 
 
 and he is confused by the rebuffs of the world? Then 
 the faith of the woman revives him, just as her soft 
 hands minister to him, and he goes forth again to fight 
 the good fight, stimulated and hopeful. 
 
 So it was that this girl wanted to know, to find out 
 what she thought it her womanly right to know Would 
 this man who, with the thought of her, as he said, to in- 
 spire him, had won his way up out of the depths would 
 he still need her as an inspiration, was she still so vital 
 to him? 
 
 And then he stumbled blindly, but happily into the 
 right course. 
 
 "It was to win your approval that I have worked up 
 to what you say is something of a worthy success", he 
 said. "I loved you that day up on the mine road, and 
 ever since you have become more and more precious to 
 me. I can't tell you how much you've been in my 
 thoughts. Why the M. N. mine is named for you those 
 letters mean Mary Norton. I need you more than ever. 
 Do you want to send me out to keep on alone and so undo 
 all the good you have done for me?" Then suddenly. 
 "Will you marry me?" 
 
 The girl arose, and there was that in her eyes that 
 made him want to take her in his arms and crush her to 
 him, to try to compel her love that way if no other. 
 
 "I won't say it it is so sudden. I " she hesitated. 
 
 And because he was very much a man, he remained 
 standing just as he was, instead of doing as every fiber 
 in him prompted. 
 
 "Listen, Mary Norton", he said with half-smiling ten- 
 derness, "if I had not had to come here to surprise and 
 perhaps shock you with what I had to say of myself, and 
 make it all appear so strange to you, I know you would 
 have told me before I left here, just what is in your
 
 302 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 heart concerning me whether it would be yes or no, but 
 I won't ask for your answer right now. I want you to 
 think of what I have said and I am coming tomorrow for 
 what you will tell me, Mary." 
 
 He spoke her name so softly she scarcely heard it, 
 and he resolutely turned from her, for the ineffable 
 sweetness of the girl, the look in her eyes and the almost 
 wistful smile on her lips nearly made him cast aside all 
 his restraint. 
 
 But he did not come on the morrow, much as at that 
 moment he really thought he would.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 CRUNCH PAYS 
 
 At Carty's saloon, Vignon leaned against the bar and 
 snarled his protests against humanity in general and 
 certain individuals in particular, while Wilkins, scowl- 
 ing as ever, had to bear the brunt of "Red Mike's" talk. 
 
 "They're all no good", Vignon was declaring. "Brad- 
 shaw, damn four-flusher, is wurs' en any of 'em. I'll git 
 that guy en git 'im good I'll git 'im good." 
 
 "Wen yuh ketch 'im", said Wilkins sneeringly. 
 
 "Yeh, when I ketch 'im." 
 
 Carty, walking behind the bar, stopped opposite 
 them. 
 
 "Lissen here you two", he commanded. "Git away 
 from this bar. Get me ?" 
 
 Vignon leered at him. 
 
 "That's what I said", Carty continued, pointing a 
 finger straight at Vignon. "You go", he ordered. 
 
 "I'll git you too", muttered Vignon, but he turned 
 away from the bar, as did Wilkins. 
 
 "In a minute I'll kick you out of here", Carty 
 shouted after them, and various men in the place turned 
 to look at the slouching Vignon, and to such a status had 
 he fallen that among all there not one so low as would 
 do him homage. 
 
 "I 'spose yuh'll wait till yuh ketch Carty, too", Wil- 
 kins said in his sneering way as Vignon and he dropped
 
 304 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 into chairs at a table against the wall opposite the bar 
 and away from the other tables. 
 
 "Say, you bum", growled Vignon, directing his dis- 
 pleasure at his henchman, "yer gittin' th' fresh habit too. 
 Keep it up, just keep it up is all I ask, en see what hap- 
 pins." 
 
 "Luk here, Vignon", returned the other, striking the 
 table with his fist and showing more spirit toward "Red 
 Mike" than ever he would have dared in prior times, "I 
 seen yuh show th' yellah streak Bradshaw made yuh 
 show it. A guy wid a yellah streak can't han' nawthin' 
 tuh me. Ev'rybody is on tuh yuh now. I'm tryin' tun 
 tell yuh fer yer own good." 
 
 Vignon half rose from his chair. 
 
 "Why you bum, you say I got a good mind to teach 
 you a lessin." 
 
 "Yeh an' yuh got a good mind not tuh, too", said Wil- 
 kins in no wise perturbed, and the other sank back on 
 his chair. 
 
 At this moment came a diversion in the approach of 
 Crunch. The new suit which Walton recently had bought 
 for him was in sad condition, and he had only a few dol- 
 lars left of the last remittance Bradshaw had sent him 
 by the newspaperman. 
 
 Vignon broke into a coarse laugh and hailed Crunch 
 with sarcastic tone. 
 
 "Ha here's ol' 'len' me yer ears'. Say ol' 'len' me 
 yer ears ;' goin' to treat today ?" 
 
 Crunch fixed him with serious eye and replied with 
 haughty demeanor. 
 
 "I don't treat with one of your ilk." 
 
 "My what?" demanded Vignon. 
 
 "Your ilk." 
 
 "I'll ilk you", bellowed Vignon throwing himself on
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 305 
 
 Crunch, who, with utterly unlocked for agility and no 
 lack of courage, tried to fight back. But Vignon's very 
 bulk bore him to the floor and Crunch was in fair way 
 of being badly pounded had not Wilkins, deciding to 
 enter the combat, struck at Vignon. "Red Mike" swung 
 at Wilkins and, in the ensuing melee, Vignon, Wilkins 
 and Crunch rolled on the floor together, while the other 
 patrons in the saloon formed a hasty circle about them. 
 
 The experienced Carty ran to the door and blew 
 shrilly on a police whistle. Then he hastened to the 
 combatants and endeavored to pacify them with rough 
 kicks and emphatic words. His way was effective, for 
 the fighting had practically come to an end when two 
 policemen arrived, and only feelings were being injured 
 by the unabated fire-edged repartee that was flying back 
 and forth between the recent warriors. 
 
 The police took charge of the situation and of Vig- 
 non, Crunch and Wilkins. 
 
 "Run 'em all in do 'em good", said Carty to one of 
 the guardians of the peace, who was guarding the pris- 
 oners, while the other one was ringing for the police 
 patrol, and the diplomatic Carty handed the policeman 
 two cigars from a box he kept in his safe. 
 
 Soon Vignon, Wilkins and Crunch were hurried into 
 the police patrol automobile, which had been backed up 
 to the saloon and, amid the buzzing of the curious who 
 had gathered, could be heard various bits of humorous 
 advice to the arrested trio. 
 
 Arrived at the city jail, the three were perfunctorily 
 searched, Vignon's empty revolver holster being un- 
 buckled and deposited to his credit against the time 
 when he might emerge from durance vile, as was the 
 case with the small amount of money taken from Wilkins 
 and Crunch, but the object which Vignon had slipped un-
 
 306 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 seen beneath his shirt, while still in the patrol auto, went 
 with him to the cell in which he was sequestered. 
 
 In police court next morning, each of the three was 
 fined fifteen dollars with the alternative of serving out 
 the decree in jail at the rate of three dollars per day, 
 and perforce each took the alternative. 
 
 Crunch thought of telephoning to Walton, but he felt 
 ashamed, for this was his first time in jail and so he de- 
 cided not to let the newspaperman know of his predica- 
 ment, preferring to take his medicine like a man. 
 
 During the ensuing five days, Vignon frequently ex- 
 pressed his hatred to Crunch who occupied the adjoining 
 cell with Wilkins and brooded on what, to his distorted 
 view, appeared as rank injustice. -And as often the case 
 with such a one, he could not proceed to anything like 
 an analytical consideration of cause and effect, of per- 
 sonal action and result, but only could jump to the con- 
 clusion that some one, not himself, some person with 
 malice aforethought and diabolical ingenuity and persis- 
 tent and revengeful purpose had brought him to what he 
 was he, the man whom so many had feared and of 
 whom he had been by way of being a leader. He to have 
 been arrested and imprisoned because of a saloon brawl ! 
 And who could that one be who thus had wanted and 
 plotted and accomplished his ruin ? Bradshaw ! So ran 
 his distorted thoughts. That by some Machiavelian 
 means Bradshaw even had caused such devoted admirers 
 as Wilkins and Snitch to fall away from him, Vignon 
 felt sure. 
 
 Crunch had not seen Bradshaw since the night of the 
 League's last meeting, but in recent months he had come 
 to know from Walton that it was Dan who supplied much 
 of the money that the newspaperman handed over to him 
 as remittances. So, when Vignon in the next cell kept
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 307 
 
 uttering his threats against Bradshaw, Crunch was led 
 to believe that Vignon knew where he could find Dan, 
 and it set Crunch to thinking. 
 
 Vignon, Wilkins and Crunch finished serving their 
 sentences on an afternoon. 
 
 From jail Wilkins went at once to Carty's. 
 
 Vignon stood undecided at the corner of the alley 
 leading to the outside door of the jail office, and there 
 was no abatement of the anger that was burning in his 
 mind, that was so fierce that it seemed almost physically 
 to be consuming him. 
 
 Crunch was standing on the curb not far away, but 
 unobserved by Vignon. Watching closely, he saw Vig- 
 non reach inside his shirt, half-withdraw an object 
 at which he glanced quickly and replace it. 
 
 A policeman stepped into the alley from the jail office 
 and Vignon slouched along towards the heart of the busi- 
 ness district. 
 
 Vignon continued his slouching way. He went as 
 would have one of the "unclean" of olden times, as if 
 every man were his enemy and eyeing him with direct 
 suspicion. 
 
 Not far ahead loomed the newspaper office where was 
 Walton's place of work. 
 
 Crunch followed along not far behind. 
 ***** 
 
 Bradshaw, his heart and mind full of his talk with 
 Mary, walked the distance from the Norton home to 
 Walton's office. 
 
 "Ho back from your private business affairs, my 
 hearty!" exclaimed the newspaperman, lolling back in 
 his chair. "Sit down a minute, Daniel, until I've fin- 
 ished reading some of this proof, and then I'm yours." 
 
 "And now", said Walton in a few minutes, "I am at
 
 308 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 your services. What do you say to a walk over to the 
 rooms and a pleasant, cool rest there until supper time, 
 and then a ride out to Columbia Gardens?*' 
 
 "Suits me just right", answered Bradshaw. "I've 
 been wanting to talk to you, too, about that new book 
 of yours." 
 
 "Haven't been thinking so much of it lately", Walton 
 said. "Truth of the matter, Dan, is that I want to have 
 a talk over at the rooms with you regarding a proposi- 
 tion that has come to me well, somewhat indirectly so 
 far, but, in fact, I heard some more about it this after- 
 noon while you were out. It has to do with an appoint- 
 ment to a governmental position of real importance. 
 Seems the governor has the recommending of it. May 
 have some international phase in fact, I understand it 
 means connection with a commission that is to take up 
 some important work. 
 
 "Great!" exclaimed Bradshaw. "I certainly would 
 regret your leaving here, John, but if there is something 
 of that importance In sight, then go, and my blessings 
 with you." 
 
 "But I haven't been offered the appointment yet", 
 said Walton with a laugh. "It's merely a vague notion 
 so far, rash one and yet", he spoke more seriously, "a 
 chance to get into the diplomatic service is something 
 I've always had a hankering for, and this kind of an 
 appointment might pave the way to it for me." 
 
 "Sure thing", agreed Bradshaw. "Get yourself ap- 
 pointed in time to some sunny little island in the South 
 Seas, which is like a summer paradise the year around. 
 You live in a charming bungalow all fixed up in romantic 
 style, the bungalow not you, and attired in spick and 
 span white suit, you not the bungalow, and with an 
 American flag over the door, showing you are the Amer-
 
 309 
 
 ican consul. Then I come along and pester you with 
 demands that you send messages to the United States 
 for me and listen to your stories of adventure and ro- 
 mance and all that while the cerulean sea curls lazily up 
 on the snow-white sand, or whatever kind of sea it is 
 down there that does something like that and then you 
 show me the new novels you have written in your leisure 
 moments and" 
 
 "And you", interrupted Walton rising, "are running 
 away with yourself. You are indeed a man of vast imag- 
 ination, Daniel." 
 
 "Have to be these days to get anywhere", remarked 
 
 Bradshaw. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Vignon looked like a man who had spent five days in 
 jail. He was unkempt. Bits of straw from his bunk 
 still were in his hair. He looked as evil as he was, and he 
 had the furtive glance of one who mistrusts his fellow- 
 men. A snarl was on his lips. His bloodshot eyes were 
 hot with the anger burning in him. He hated the people. 
 He hated the city which, he decided in his peculiar ego- 
 tism, had repudiated him. He hated the signs of in- 
 dustry and prosperity and progress he saw all about 
 him. He was the very incarnation of the spirit of un- 
 reasoning, maddened, anarchistic Direct Actionism. He 
 was galled by the realization that, in truth, the world did 
 not want him the inciter to riot, the preacher of dis- 
 turbance, the advocate of anarchism. Five years before, 
 he had been a strong and earnest man, a first class 
 miner, proud of that and proud of his strength. Time 
 had been, too, when he had felt a little pride in his at- 
 tire that was when he was a strong, well-balanced man. 
 
 He looked down at his form. What rags and tatters
 
 310 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 covered him! The very taint of jail atmosphere was 
 still on him! 
 
 He was an outcast the symbol of Hatred, blind 
 Fury, destructive, repelling and unworthy ; repudiated by 
 Industry, by Progress and by himself ! 
 
 Vignon let his hand go tremblingly down his ragged 
 coat front and all at once he straightened up somewhat, 
 as he touched the handle of the bulldog revolver hidden 
 in his shirt. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Bradshaw and Walton paused to read the bulletins in 
 front of the newspaper building, and then went on their 
 way to Walton's rooms. 
 
 When they were near the arched portal of the apart- 
 ment building, a slouching figure came along, keeping 
 close to the wall. Neither Bradshaw nor Walton heeded 
 it, for Crunch, coming directly to them from across the 
 street, had attracted their notice. They stopped to 
 watch him, but he was not then looking at them his 
 gaze was directed beyond them a few paces, to where 
 Vignon had arrived between them and the building's en- 
 trance. 
 
 Vignon, his glowering eyes on Bradshaw as if fas- 
 cinated and yet fearing that his sight of Dan was but an 
 hallucination of his fevered brain, drew the bulldog re- 
 volver from its hiding place and pointed it at the man 
 he considered the worst of all his enemies. 
 
 It all happened so quickly that, with the exception of 
 Crunch, who, in a way had been prepared for it, the few 
 others near at hand did not know what to do before the 
 drama staged by Vignon had ended. 
 
 Bradshaw, noting Crunch's horrified look past him, 
 turned to see Vignon leveling the weapon at his head, 
 and Vignon pressed the trigger the very instant that
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 311 
 
 Crunch hurled himself forward, just managing to strike 
 the revolver aside. 
 
 Frenzied, the madman turned the weapon towards 
 Crunch and shot him through the heart. The next mo- 
 ment, Vignon fell from a crushing blow on the head de- 
 livered by the club of a quickly-arrived policeman. 
 
 Men came running from various directions, while 
 women drew away terror-stricken, intent on the fallen 
 figures of Crunch and Vignon all but Walton. 
 
 Unnoticed for the moment even by Bradshaw, who 
 thought the newspaperman beside or close behind him 
 as he bent over Crunch, Walton sank back against a pil- 
 lar of the portal, wavering unsteadily and looking 
 straight ahead with very wide and very surprised eyes. 
 He was ashen white; pressed close to his side he held a 
 hand, a thin, crimson stain spreading over his coat from 
 beneath his fingers. 
 
 Then Bradshaw saw what had happened and, para- 
 lyzed for only the interval of a heart beat, he sprang to 
 Walton and caught him in his arms just as the news- 
 paperman collapsed.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 MARY 
 
 Up and down the cement floor of the cool, methodi- 
 cally arranged sub-dispensing room, Bradshaw paced. 
 Every nerve in him was alive with its keenest tension. 
 His nervous excitement made him tremble inwardly un- 
 til it was almost exhausting. 
 
 The coming to the hospital ; the hurried arrangements 
 that had followed in all that time he had acted with a 
 remarkable coolness and certainty, and yet now the affair 
 and its det'ails seemed like a dream. 
 
 In the operating room, on the other side of the bottle- 
 lined wall, white-garbed and turbaned hospital surgeons 
 were working over Walton. And while in the room 
 there was a quiet that was like a holiness, Bradshaw 
 knew that many had come crowding to the main entrance 
 of the big institution and that members of Walton's 
 newspaper staff had penetrated as far as the reception 
 rooms. Only Bradshaw had been permitted to accom- 
 pany the stretcher, on which Walton was carried, into 
 the inner recesses of the building and to the operating 
 room. 
 
 A dark stain was on Bradshaw's coat and, as he 
 passed in his slow pacing close to a window, he noticed 
 it for the first time. He touched it. It was blood Wal- 
 ton's. He stood there with his fingers pressing that 
 damp spot and through his mind ran many thoughts of
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 313 
 
 what had happened and what might come. He had 
 wanted to go into the operating room with the alert, 
 quick-stepping and calmly businesslike surgeons, but the 
 chief of them had kindly but firmly asked him not to do 
 so. But before the final half of the double doors, that 
 opened from corridor to operating room, had been closed, 
 Bradshaw had glimpsed a motionless figure outstretched 
 on the operating table and the pungent odor of the an- 
 aesthetic had come to him. Then that half of the doors 
 had been closed quickly and noiselessly, shutting off the 
 view, but the smell of ether remained with him, almost 
 sickeningly sweet, menacing and yet fraught with prom- 
 ise too. 
 
 While to Bradshaw it seemed that hours had passed 
 since those folding doors had been closed, in truth it had 
 been scarcely half an hour and the details of the affair, 
 most of them exaggerated, were beginning to circulate 
 through the city. 
 
 Bradshaw thought of that last glimpse of Vignon 
 Vignon leveling a squat, wicked-looking revolver at his 
 head, and his eyes venomous; of Crunch springing for- 
 ward and then reeling back from the force of the bullet 
 that pierced him. Why Crunch had saved his life! 
 Bradshaw looked out through the window with unseeing 
 eyes. It had been meant that he should be where Walton 
 now was ! He pictured in his mind what might have re- 
 sulted had the bullet, the cause of Walton's condition, 
 gone to its intended mark and he, Bradshaw, was the 
 one in there on that operating table or on the long, 
 white marble slab at some morgue. What would it all 
 have meant to Her? What if Walton died for him ? 
 
 A movement at the door made him turn, for he 
 thought one of the gentle Sisters was there. But he was 
 wrong. Mary Norton stood supporting herself against
 
 314 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 a side of the doorway and looking at him with wide, 
 questioning eyes. The Sister who had conducted her 
 there, already was moving into the next corridor. 
 
 His surprise held him momentarily mute and mo- 
 tionless and then quickly he went to her and took her in 
 his arms while she clung to him. 
 
 "Dan they said it was you that was what I was 
 told and I came as fast as I could they wouldn't let 
 me come up here at first, and then they said it wasn't 
 you, but I made them let me come they just had to let 
 me come to see for myself", she was half whispering in 
 the quick, appealing way of a woman mortally in fear. 
 
 The thought came to him like a thrust that she had 
 come overwrought with the idea that he, perhaps, had 
 been fatally hurt, and finding him well and strong might 
 have made her mistake her true feeling for him in that 
 moment of reaction. So he gently took his arms from 
 about her as if to put her from him, but she looked 
 frankly up at him though seemingly a little bewildered 
 as might a child have been. 
 
 "Why why Dan was I wrong in coming here? 
 Don't you ", and she paused. 
 
 He was looking deep down into her wide open eyes 
 that were like bottomless, Heaven-reflecting pools. Al- 
 most fiercely he drew her close to him again and bent 
 his head and kissed her as a man kisses a woman whose 
 love he holds and to whom he gives a love that sanctifies 
 him. Tears came involuntarily to the eyes of this strong 
 man and he felt shamed that he had doubted her even 
 for a moment after she had come so to find the truth. 
 
 "Dan", she whispered, "a Sister brought me here and 
 she must be out there in the corridor". She drew gently 
 away from him to see. But the corridor was silent, and 
 empty no Sister of Charity was there. Then came a
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 315 
 
 stirring about in the operating room and Bradshaw 
 stepped into the corridor beside the girl. 
 
 Holding her hand firmly in his, they awaited the 
 opening of the double doors. 
 
 Walton did not die. Nor did he even go perilously 
 near the brink of the silently flowing river in the 
 shadowy valley. The bullet had been deflected by a rib 
 and had buried itself in the flesh under his right arm, 
 from which it had been easily extracted. A few hours 
 later, when he had come from under the influence of the 
 anaesthetic, he told Bradshaw that he did not know what 
 had made him the more sick the shock of the bullet or 
 the ether. 
 
 "Also, I am going back to my rooms in the morning", 
 he declared, a decision which his physician promptly 
 countermanded with the statement that he would have 
 to remain in the hospital for about a week. And that, 
 the newspaperman was inclined to resent, for, like all 
 strong men, he had that boyish impatience when it came 
 to having, perforce, to remain in bed even for a limited 
 time that made him almost peevish, until Bradshaw in- 
 formed him of the new happiness that had come to him 
 and Mary Norton, whereupon Walton, with genuine de- 
 light, averred that the news did him more good than 
 could all the medical skill in the world. 
 
 "Bless you, my boy, bless you!" he exclaimed to 
 Bradshaw. "It is just as I wanted it to be. You cer- 
 tainly don't deserve her but then, no man half deserves 
 any good woman." 
 
 Before Walton left the hospital to return to his apart- 
 ments, Bradshaw spoke to him of Vignon and of how 
 Crunch had been done to his death. 
 
 "I gave Crunch decent burial and if he left any rela-
 
 316 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 tives, I'll do what I can for them. Poor Crunch no 
 more Shakespeare from him." 
 
 Another week and Walton was able to be present at 
 the Norton home as the guest of honor of a family din- 
 ner there. It was in truth a happy gathering. 
 
 "What do you think of this proposition of Dan com- 
 ing in here and planning to take my greatest treasure 
 from me in such a short time ?" Norton laughingly asked 
 Walton. 
 
 "He's always been a rather impetuous and certainly 
 lucky young man", rejoined the other. 
 
 "Anyhow it all comes of my being away from town", 
 Norton went on in his good-natured way. "All I had to 
 do was to go to Anaconda for one day and then get back 
 at night to find you, Walton, had tried to shuffle off this 
 mortal coil and frighten your friends to death and be 
 informed that one, Dan Bradshaw, had usurped the place 
 of my friend, D. Williams, and not content with that had 
 appropriated my sister. But I will say that always hav- 
 ing had a real liking for Dan Bradshaw and also for D. 
 Williams, I indeed am twice as fond of the man who com- 
 bines them both." 
 
 Before he left that evening, Walton heard from Mary 
 that she had written the details of his injury as well as 
 her other important news to Margaret Hanlon, sojourn- 
 ing in Hawaii, who, according to her most recent letter 
 to Mary, had said she might go on to Japan. 
 
 "I should have an answer from her before so very 
 long", Mary concluded with that womanly ability to say 
 casually that which was of important concern to the man 
 listener and which she well knew would bring him com- 
 fort. 
 
 Therefore, when Bradshaw came to her not long after 
 with the information that to Walton had been tendered
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 317 
 
 the appointment as a member of the governmental com- 
 mission of which she knew, and he exclaimed that he did 
 not know why Walton was so hesitant about accepting 
 it, Mary smiled. 
 
 "I know you are a wonderful man, Dan Bradshaw", 
 she said, "but there are some things no mere man can 
 quite understand", with which cryptic statement he had 
 to be satisfied until she was ready to explain the specific 
 intent of her words. 
 
 That explanation did not come until a week later, 
 after Mary had received a letter from Margaret corro- 
 borating the vague rumor Mary had heard to the effect 
 that Margaret had been wooed and won by Mr. Arthur 
 Eugene Welling of New York, able son of an able father 
 and owner of the great Welling steel works. 
 
 Walton was standing at one of his office windows 
 watching the forming of storm clouds when Bradshaw 
 came to see him the afternoon of the day that Mary re- 
 ceived Margaret's letter, to tell him of the news that had 
 come from Honolulu. 
 
 Walton remained silent, watching the brewing storm, 
 and then when the clouds looked the darkest there came 
 a little rift in them and a long, golden pathway of sun- 
 light streamed through. 
 
 Presently the newspaperman turned from the win- 
 dow. 
 
 "Dan, I am trying to frame up a telegram accepting 
 that appointment", he remarked in his quietest way. But 
 Dan did not fail to detect in the other's tone the fierce 
 struggle that was taking place in Walton's heart. Still, 
 he knew that through Walton's mastery of himself, he 
 would come out victorious. 
 
 Late that night, Bradshaw went to Walton's rooms 
 and found the newspaperman comfortable in dressing
 
 318 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 
 
 robe seated before his unlighted grate, with all lights out 
 but the glow of the shaded library lamp, smoking his 
 pipe. 
 
 Occupying his accustomed deep chair opposite Wal- 
 ton and with pipe going, fleecy white tobacco clouds 
 wreathing above them, Bradshaw gave his friend that 
 manner of sincere sympathy which one man knows how 
 to extend to another without the formality of words. 
 
 "One more month and you will be a Benedict and I 
 will be on my way east", said Walton, and paused a mo- 
 ment. "Dan, my Lad, it's all been like a play and what 
 a wonderful, what a virile play !" 
 
 "As Crunch might have paraphrased it It indeed is 
 a fact that we live to find the world's all a stage", and 
 Bradshaw watched the smoke curls drifting lazily up- 
 ward. "By the way, John, I saw the superintendent of 
 the prison hospital this evening and he told me of Vig- 
 non's death." 
 
 Neither one spoke for a few moments, and they 
 puffed at their pipes. 
 
 "Some great talks we've had in this place", remarked 
 Bradshaw. 
 
 "Dan, I hate to think of giving up these rooms", said 
 Walton. "They are like a part of us. And when you 
 came in I was thinking, too, of other things I will miss 
 There is that view from the veranda of 'Mountain View*. 
 I'll often think of the mountains so deep blue in the even- 
 ing and the heavens above them so pink. Somehow that 
 will make me seem there with you again, for we all like 
 your mountains in the same way we who know them." 
 
 "It isn't the end of the play, John not at all", de- 
 clared Bradshaw. "Why the play is just beginning." 
 He drew meditatively at his pipe for a moment and when 
 he spoke it was softly. "But Oh, John, my friend, what
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 319 
 
 a thrilling and a wonderful and an inspiring prologue it 
 has been." 
 
 That same evening, Norton brought home startling 
 news. 
 
 Tharny had decamped. Creditors by the score were 
 left mourning. A Federal agent was going over 
 Tharny's stock promotions for within the past few days, 
 Tharny had made a desperately bold effort to defraud a 
 broker and the authorities had been put on his trail. 
 
 "Good riddance though the scamp should be in the 
 penitentiary," declared Norton. And he wondered at 
 the warmth with which his sister kissed him. 
 ***** 
 
 A most beautiful day of all Indian Summer, it seemed 
 to Bradshaw, as he sat on a ledge of the big boulder that 
 made a throne for the girl at his side and a little above 
 him. And while she, too, saw the beauty of the moun- 
 tain scenery before and below them, which then was hold- 
 ing his gaze, she frequently glanced at him with a smile 
 that was all tenderness and pride, and a mist 
 of happy tears came before her eyes. He was in his 
 mountain costume, his blue flannel shirt open at his 
 strong, bronzed neck, as he liked best to have it ; his hat 
 on the turf beside him. 
 
 For many miles, the valley stretched away in delight- 
 ful panorama. On either hand the mountains swung out 
 in semicircular form. High up on the ridges were heavy 
 snow banks, but below the snow-line, the charm of In- 
 dian Summer held sway. 
 
 Bradshaw and his wife had ridden to this favorite 
 place from "Mountain View", while DeWitt Norton had 
 gone to the lower camp to inspect with Paddy Skiff and 
 Jackson the great new hoisting plant there.
 
 320 BORN OF TH CRUCIBLE 
 
 Norton, Paddy, Jackson and the foreman stepped on 
 the cage and the foreman signaled for the descent. 
 Faster and faster the long cable played out. Suddenly 
 the cage lurched. There came a whirring noise and the 
 cage rocked and began to plunge towards the sump. 
 
 "My God the bolt's broke we're dropping!" cried 
 out the foreman. 
 
 But even as he spoke, there came an intermittent 
 grinding noise, a quivering of the cage and its speed be- 
 gan to be checked. It slowed there was no cessation of 
 the grinding noise now and then the cage stopped. 
 
 It was almost opposite the big doors of a level and 
 Paddy Skiff hastily opening the cage doors, rapped on 
 the other doors until they were unbarred and drawn 
 back, the cage's occupants quickly climbing to the level. 
 
 The foreman sank down on a timber as though ex- 
 hausted. Paddy Skiff wiped the sweat from his fore- 
 head, and Jackson spat out a tooth that the clinching of 
 his jaws had broken. 
 
 Norton drew a very deep breath, and even in that 
 light the men, clustering about the saved ones, could see 
 that he was very pale. Then Norton smiled a little and 
 said coolly, "Bradshaw's safety-clutch works fine we'll 
 all say that!" 
 
 And at that moment, Bradshaw was looking smilingly 
 at his wife as he lifted himself to a place beside her. 
 
 "Look, dearest", he said pointing to the mountains 
 across the broad valley. 
 
 The foothills were already in shadowy indistinctness 
 and it was not as if only the shade of coming evening had 
 made its way up the mountain grades, but as if a wide- 
 spreading brightness had risen, ever risen out of the 
 depths, up and ever up to the great, shining ridges on
 
 BORN OF THE CRUCIBLE 321 
 
 the summit that now was bathed in golden sunlight and 
 looked marvelously massive and strong and sure. 
 
 The mountain man's head was erect, the blood 
 throbbed through his veins and the look of him was good 
 and wholesome. While the great, shining summit across 
 the valley still held his gaze, he placed his arm tenderly 
 about the waist of his wife. And so he, too, would be 
 strong, sure and brave out in life's sunlight a light 
 the more glorious because of her sweet companionship 
 and abiding faith in him. 
 
 THE END
 
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