My Experience with the Gold Miners “Joe, my partner, and I made a pot of sourdough booze, and when it was ripe we asked in some Eskimos. We played poker and it was my lucky day. I got all the stakes, and when I took Joe’s last dollar, he picked up a broken bottle and threw it at me. I was so woozy I did not dodge, and the sharp edge hit me at the throat.” I went back to the laundry, hauled out the sack of dirty clothes, went through the pockets and found the six hundred dollars, and then deposited it in the safety lock box in my office. The next morning Alec was much better, quiet but still pale from the loss of blood. When I touched my finger to his pulse, he aroused and said, “There is fifty dollars more you did not find in those clothes.” “I looked through all your pockets, and I know there is no more money in them,” I said. “It’s wrapped in an old blue handkerchief,” he said. I went back to the laundry, hauled out the clothes again and found the fifty dollars in the blue handkerchief. I put it with the other six hundred in my desk. By the end of three weeks, Alec had made great progress in regaining his health. When I made rounds one morning I said to Alec, “Joe, your partner, is appearing in court tomorrow. What charges are you bringing against him?” “I’m not bringing any charges. He’s my partner,” said Alec. “You mean you are not bringing charges when he nearly killed you,” I said. “No, he’s my partner. We’ll have to mine together this summer,” he said. I thought a minute and asked, “How much will this episode cost you?” “Let me think,” said Alec. “They will probably fine Joe three hundred dollars. My plane will cost one hundred fifty dollars, fifty more for clothes, and the other one hundred fifty will pay hospital and other bills. We will go back to Council broke. We have a good gold mine though and will make a good stake next summer.” “And spend it gambling and drinking,” I remarked. He was silent for a moment and said, “I have learned my lesson.” In a few days Alec went to the Pioneer Rooming House about three blocks from the hospital. Nearly every day while he was waiting for the
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