Colorado Jim   By: George Goodchild (1888-)

by

GEORGE GOODCHILD

A. L. Burt Company Publishers New York Published by arrangement with W. J. Watt & Company Printed in U. S. A.

Copyright, 1922, by W. J. Watt & Company All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. A SON OF THE WEST 1 II. THE BRIGHT LIGHTS 14 III. SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT 28 IV. ANGELA 48 V. FROST AND FIRE 69 VI. THE GREAT AWAKENING 86 VII. THE CLIMAX 100 VIII. THE WHITE TRAIL 114 IX. HIGH STAKES 127 X. ANGELA MEETS A FRIEND 144 XI. FRUITLESS TOIL 157 XII. INTO THE WILDERNESS 171 XIII. THE TERROR OF THE NORTH 186 XIV. THE BREAKING POINT 198 XV. THE QUEST 208 XVI. THE GREAT LIE 224 XVII. A CHANGE OF FRONT 234 XVIII. A GLEAM OF SUNSHINE 245 XIX. THE CRISIS 258 XX. COMPLICATIONS 268 XXI. NATALIE TRIES HER LUCK 279 XXII. GOLD 291 XXIII. DEPARTURE 302 XXIV. CONCLUSION 311

COLORADO JIM

CHAPTER I

A SON OF THE WEST

Out of the brooding darkness was born the first timid blush of the morn. It sprang to life along the serried edge of the Medicine Bow, a broadening band of blood red light. For one instant it seemed that some titan breath had blown at the source, darkening the red to purple; and then, with startling suddenness, the whole wide range flamed up. The full red rim of the sun smote aloft, sending the shades scuttling down the valleys, to vanish in thin air.

The man at the window of the Medicine Bow Hotel drew in his breath with a slight hissing sound, as the whole magnificent landscape sprang into dazzling light. It had always taken him like that. He remembered the day when, as a boy of seven, he had first seen the sun soar over the ridge, from the old "Prairie Schooner" encamped in "The Garden of the Gods." No less wonderful was it now; for Jim Conlan, late owner of Topeka Mine, and almost millionaire, was but a magnified version of the boy of twenty three years back. Time had brought its revenges, its rewards, its illusions; but the great winds, the everlasting hills, and the wild life of the West had combined in cementing the early resolutions and ideas.

He had won through by dint of muscle and hard thinking. He saw now that the secret of his success was determination. He had earned a reputation for never letting go anything to which he had put his hand. Men feared him, but loved him at the same time. He had proved himself to be a staunch friend but an implacable enemy. His six feet three inches of bone and sinew was usually sufficient to scare off any trouble seekers. Colorado Jim, as they called him, was the product of primal Nature, unpolished, rough as the gaunt mountains of the Medicine Bow, and as inscrutable.

All through the short summer night he had sat at the window waiting for the dawn. The man who never let go had let go something this time, and that something was nothing less than his whole life. He never believed it would hurt him like it did. For the past three years he had been restless. The soul and mind of him ached for expansion. The chief incentive to work had gone. He had more money than he could spend in the West. Yonder was New York, Paris, London. Alluring visions of civilization flashed through his brain. What was the use of money if not to burn, and where in the whole of Colorado could one burn money and get full value?