The Gold Seekers [pp. 113]

THE GOLD SEEKERS
lights, the trees, the faces. It was the
same-beyond was A mad, potent fury
seized him. He strode up the steps and
glaring across the floor, enunciated clearly
with fierce passion the one word, "Rita!"
Then something snapped in his brain and
the lights flared into a vast conflagration.
He gasped and lurched to one side; his
hand clutched at the railing, but slipped,
and his body fell heavily before the door.
And poor little Rita, weeping, declared
she had never even spoken to old Garcia in
all her life.
THE GOLD SEEKERS
T HE panting steamer slowly drops
Away from the crowded pier;
The blackened decks recede from view
And leave me musing here.
Away where the gold so warm and red,
Lies hid in the dark earth's breast;
Little they reck of danger and cold,
Aglow with the golden quest.
The rosy youth with kindling eye,
In his manhood's early dawn,
The pale man with the student's stoop,
The stalwart man of brawn.
All, each and all, with fevered gaze
Fixed on the fields of gold;
Ah, well-a-day! for a faith that's firm
And a heart that is brave and bold.
For those there be who will come again,
All broken and worn and wan,
While others left in the Arctic snows,
Will slumber forever on.
And some will empty-handed come,
Who have missed the golden goal,
And some with gold too dear, alas!
The price of a sinless soul.
And those at home will sit at night, And the wind sweeps where it wills,
With hearts away in a shambling shack
In the wild Alaskan hills.
'T is thus I muse on the lonely quay,
Whence the hurrying crowd is gone;
Whilst far away for the frozen North
A flag of smoke trails on.
Carrie Shla(w Rice.
V o,. XXXII-8
113