gouged through with ink.

Shes paid all my hospital bills and when I get strong enough shes
going to let me go to work for her. But that aint what Im writing
about and this letter is the biggest I ever wrote. The nurse says
Im making a book. I wasn't a very bad girl or a very good girl
when I was in the camps. Maybe you know that but I done my best
and was as decent as I could be. There was a man was my sweetheart
and sometimes when he drank too much he talked too much. Men
always say a whole lot when theyre full of rotgut, unless they get
nasty. My man never got nasty. Hes gone away and I dont know
where. Maybe he dont want nothing more to do with me since I got
my face burned. Ive kept my mouth shut until I found out it was
you two men who saved me and Im writing this to pay you back the
only way I can. Bully Presby is stealing all his best pay ore from
the Croix d'Or. Hes worked clean under you and got the richest
ledge in the district. They aint nobody but confidential men ever
get into that drift. Hes been stealing that ore for going on two
years andll give you a lot of trouble if you dont mind your Ps and
Qs. I hope you beat him out, and I pray for both of you.

Your ever grateful,
Pearl Walker.

CHAPTER XVII

WHEN REASON SWINGS

Dick suddenly crumpled the sheet of paper, and put it in his pocket.
He lifted himself, as a man distracted, from the chair in which he had
been sitting, gripping the arms with hands that were tensely
responding to an agony of spirit. He almost lurched forward as he
stepped to the little steps leading down from the porch, and into the
worn trail, hesitated at the forks leading to mess-house or assay
office, and then mechanically turned in the latter direction, it being
where the greater number of his working hours were passed.

"Where you goin'?" the voice of his partner called, as he plunged
forward.

He had to make a determined attempt to speak, then his voice broke,
harsh and strained, through dry lips:

"Assay office."

He did not look back, but went forward, with limp hands and tottering
knees, turning neither to right nor left. The whole world was a haze.
The steadfast mountain above him was a cynical monster, and dimly, in
the shadow of the high landmark, he discerned a change, sinister,
gloating, and leering on him and his misery. Th