The Helpers

his watch and his surveying instruments, and made a beginning on his surplus clothing. It was a measure of the velocity of the descent that the watch, with the transit

congruous superfluity; and having by no means reached the philosophical level in his d

ing experience which makes them tolerable. But before many days the poor remnants of pride and self-respect gave up the unequal struggle, leavin

pitality was as boundless as the range whereon his herds grazed, and who claimed kinship with Jeffard because both chanced to be transplanted New Englanders. While Pettigrew stayed in Denver, Jeffard lived on the fat of the land, eating at h

t he had found in the person of the sweet-faced young woman with the far-seeing eyes the Heaven-born alchemist who could, if she so willed, transmute the flinty perverseness of him into plastic wax, shaping it after her own ideals; that it was the unacknowledged beginning of love which had found wings for the short-lived flight of higher hopes and more worthy aspi

spectability, and tramped the streets in a fruitless search for employment until he was ready to drop from fatigue and hunger. Nothing came of it. The great

luncheon, and dinner, Jeffard saw a familiar figure standing at the counter in one of the newspaper offices. Knowing his man, Jeffard st

se lest his chance of breaking his fast should vanish while he tarried. Presen

omer. "I saw you waiting for me. How goe

ale; do you happen to have th

s arm under his own, steered diagonally acros

e is unhasting. When you saw me I was closing a negotiation, by the terms of which the cashier of the 'Coloradoan' becomes my banker. Behold, now, the mysteries of-shall we say Providence? At any time within the six months I would have s

t him in. "Can't you see that I'm too damned hungry to talk?" he demanded savagely;

sappeared, Jeffard was ashame

I was a civilized being, but, God help me, Lansdale, I'm not! When I've gone witho

that Shakespeare never went hungry, else he wouldn't have said, 'Sweet are the uses of adversity.' They're not sweet; they're damnably bitter. A man may co

effard, whose despair was not yet proo

a trick of disappearing in the day of physical dearth. When hunger has driven a man over the ethical boundary a

of Jakeh,'" he quoted. "I believe you'd moral

offer better opportunities? And am I not going to b

obscured: that his companion's smooth-shaven face seemed gaunter than u

t helping you,

f climate, plenty of outdoor indolence, nutritious food at stated intervals. I have

always believed you could make it wi

olorado-or anywhere else outside of the literary centres. In Boston I could always find an odd job of reviewing, or space-

, like everything else

journalist. Your thoroughbred newspaper man has more or les

aiter was opening a modest bottle of claret

t a man's hospitality?" demande

ting now, and if I put wine into me I shall pawn the co

see that you don't have

le sipped his wine. When the waiter brought the cigars he came o

about it. "I suppose I do; else I shouldn't be s

fair trial. If I had the money I believe I'd change places with you; that is, I'd give you the money in exchange for your

thinks he has arrived. Now pull yourself together, and tel

w r

igure; say eight or ten thou

future worth talking about. I had a lucid day, in which the things that make for ambition of the better sort had their inning. If you had asked me such a question then, I should doubtless have told you that I should try to realize the ideals o

not wholly cynical. "

ould go back to the old farm in the Berkshire Hi

ndoned farm, though I grant you it would be a pretty e

ng, piling up and up till there was no shadow of possibility that I should ever again come to know

o none of these things. Jeffard the fool may be heard of wherever the Associated Press has a wire or a correspondent; but Jeff

l and impracticable, and keeping well out of the present in either the past or the

made him take it back. "And there are no conditions. You

had taken his place in the silent group around the table in the upper room; and by the time the pile of counters under his hand had increased to d

a trick of softening like a woman's, had warned him by winks, nods, and sundry kicks under the table to stop. Jeffard scowled his resentment of the interference and played on, losing st

learn you how to spile my play! St

dealer held his hand, and the

is is a gen'leman's game, and we don't run no shootin'-gallery-lea

flung himself savagely upon his assailant, only to learn that abstinence is a poor trainer, and that he was little better than a lay-figure i

n this dive, you've been here, too, a-blowin' yourself like you had a wad as big as a feather bed, and you know danged well you hain't got nothin'. And you wouldn't 'a' kep' a dern cent to-night, if I hadn't