sician who may
declare it necessary to save my life, from the date of the signing of
this pledge until the Fourth of July, one thousand nine hundred and
seven."

As Tim gathered the meaning of the words on the paper, his eyes
expanded; he puckered his lips and emitted a low whistle.

"Do ye mind," he said, looking across the table with his old quizzical
expression, "the remark that the governor of North Carliny made to the
governor of South Carliny?"

Jeff gravely inclined his head.

"I've heerd of it."

"What do ye s'pose he would have said if the time between drinks was
ten years?"

"I've never thought, and don't care."

"He would have died long before the time was up."

"When you left the boys in the diggings you came to Dawson City to
spend the worth of that nugget for whiskey. I happened to meet you in
time and made you go back with me. You'd been off on sprees a half
dozen other times, if I hadn't kept an eye on you. Drink is the enemy
that will down you if you don't stop at once. If you'll stay sober for
ten years, I'll take the chances after that. Are you going to sign?"

Tim's eyes were fixed on the paper which he held in his hand. He mused
loud enough for the listening Jeff to catch every word:

"To sign that means no more headaches and bad health, but a clear brain
and a strong body; no more hours of gloom, no weakness of the limbs and
pricks of the conscience; no more breaking the heart of me good old
mother in Ireland, but the bringing of sunshine and joy to her in her
last days; it means the signing away of me slavery, and the clasping to
me heart of the swate boon of liberty; it means the making of mesilf
into a man!"

With a firm hand he wrote his name at the bottom of the paper, and
flinging down the pen, said:

"With God's help, that pledge shall be kept."

"Amen," reverently responded Jeff; "there's your check for seventy-five
thousand dollars."

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Klondike Nuggets, by E. S. Ellis

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KLONDIKE NUGGETS ***

***** This file should be named 21652.txt or 21652.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/6/5/21652/

Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

U