Page:Willa Cather - The Song of the Lark.djvu/397

 "Well, send him a line and tell him to come in again. I like to hear him. Of all the crazy prospectors I 've ever known, he 's the most interesting, because he 's really crazy. It 's a religious conviction with him, and with most of 'em it 's a gambling fever or pure vagrancy. But Jasper Flight believes that the Almighty keeps the secret of the silver deposits in these hills, and gives it away to the deserving. He 's a downright noble figure. Of course I 'll stake him! As long as he can crawl out in the spring. He and that burro are a sight together. The beast is nearly as white as Jasper; must be twenty years old."

"If you stake him this time, you won't have to again," said T. B. knowingly. "He 'll croak up there, mark my word. Says he never ties the burro at night now, for fear he might be called sudden, and the beast would starve. I guess that animal could eat a lariat rope, all right, and enjoy it."

"I guess if we knew the things those two have eaten, and have n't eaten, in their time, T. B., it would make us vegetarians." The doctor sat down and looked thoughtful. "That 's the way for the old man to go. It would be pretty hard luck if he had to die in a hospital. I wish he could turn up something before he cashes in. But his kind seldom do; they 're bewitched. Still, there was Stratton. I 've been meeting Jasper Flight, and his side meat and tin pans, up in the mountains for years, and I 'd miss him. I always halfway believe the fairy tales he spins me. Old Jasper Flight," Archie murmured, as if he liked the name or the picture it called up.

A clerk came in from the outer office and handed Archie a card. He sprang up and exclaimed, "Mr. Ottenburg? Bring him in."

Fred Ottenburg entered, clad in a long, fur-lined coat, holding a checked-cloth hat in his hand, his cheeks and eyes bright with the outdoor cold. The two men met before Archie's desk and their handclasp was longer than friendship prompts except in regions where the blood warms and