Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-05-14

to heaven. Among all these enormous
things we eight men, big and strong as
we were, seemed of no more account
than lot of ants crawling on blade of
grass, and | think | never feleso small
in my life as did then.
However, | hadn't much leisure to
think about it at the time, for you can't
expect o fellow to have much of an eye
for scenery when he's hacking his way
through great cobweb of branches too
thick for the light to get through, with
his boots full of ants and his mouth full
of gnats, and the damp vapor-bath heat
of the woods melting him eway bit by
bit, fifty pricklcs going into him at once,
u thOrn-bush scalping him from above
and a creeper tripping him up down be-
low
And so we hammered along, till at last
we worked up to the plateau and saw
the great lake spreading away before us
as far as ever we could see. We weren't
long of making out the three-cornered
crag, nor the shadow neither, for it was
just at sunrise when we got there, as If
o. purpose for US; and once we'd made
it out we hardly waited to take breath
before we were at it tooth and toe-nail.
The first day was regular blank one
till Just toward sundOwn, and then the
Portigee screeohcd out suddenly that
he'd got something heavy. | helped him
to haul up the pan, and there, sure
enough, was a bar of gold over foot
long, and pretty nigh as thick as my two
fingers here. AT that we all shouted at
once, and went at it harder than ever;
and | really think our chaps would have
worked all night, but Seth stopped 'em.
He told 'em that the gold wouldn't run
away, and that if they put ON too much
steam at first they'd just use themselves
up before they were half through, and
that they'd better just light the fire and
get dried, and have some supper, and fix
up some kind of shelter against the dew,
and then start fair next morning. And
so they did.
The next day and the next and the next
after that we kept bringing it up in hand
fuls-gold circlets and chains and neck
laces and ingots without end. But on
the fifth day found the provisions get
ting so low that 1 was rather scared, for
up here there was no game of any sort,
there being no vegetation at that height
for the game to live on. So we held a
council of war. Our chaps had got the
gold fever so into their blood by this
blilt luhb L NGillN DtlltNt lHtN u nave
kept digging on till they died of hunger
but Seth and l, who were little cooler,
talked them over at last. We told 'em
that we'd got enough already to make us
all as rich as Jews; that we must all
starve if we didn't replenish our stock
somehow; that ten to one the find" was
played out land, indeed, none of us had
taken a grain all that morning. and that,
loI o1, har
and they could come back and try again
whenever they liked. So, bit by bit, we
worked 'em round, and all started to go
back together.
We'd hard work of it the first part of
the way, for our loads were pretty heavy,
and stumbling in and out of these great
rocks was no joke, let alone that the five
days work had taken it out of us more
than we expected. One of the Spaniards
got bad fall, and not one of us but had
his bruise to show. But at last we got
over the barren bit and found ourselves
fairly down among the woods again; and
then l began to be jolly, thinking this
was the end of it. But it wasn't-it was
only the beginning.
CHAPTER II.
One afternoon, when we'd got well
down among the lower ranges, we were
Just looking about for a place to camp
(for the Spaniard who had got hurt was
beginning to give up), when one of the
niggers said suddenly
"Senor, man watch usw
l looked up, and there, sure enough,
was man "a savage-looking fellow
enough, but evidently no InGian) watch
ing us from the top of a ridge, little to
the left. He Kept looking after us for a
little while, and then disappeared as if
the earth had swallowed him.
Don't like that" says Seth, /" that
critters seen that we carry heavy
swag, and he's gone to tell some of his
chums, you bet!
"When one has found punllin-pie,
He goes and tells the tothersl
Z 81 feel like campin' in a strong place
tonight, dOw
And so we did-with deep canon
(gorge) behind US going sheer down near
ly hundred feet and thick clump OF
trees in our front that made cover, while
beyond it the ground was smooth and
level for good eighty yards, so that nc
living thing could come near US without
being seen and fired at.
Just as we'd Int our fire and were begin
ming to cook we saw first one man AMI
then another, till we had counted fifteen
in all, come zigzagging in and out of the
bushes down the face of the opposite
ridge They halted just at the edge OF
the thicket and took a look at the smoke
of our fire rising above the trees; and
then two of them laId down their rifles
and were coming across the clearing to
us, looking as friendly as they could
when old Seth shoves his head through
the leaves and says in Spanish:
Gentlemen, we're talking over lit
tie business of our own and wish to bC
private, so you'll oblige us by keeping
your own side and wen keep ours fol
we have way of shooting things tina
come too near us, and we should be sorry
to lift you by mistaken
Back the two beauties went, lOokinl
as silly as a ha'porth of treacle in u two
gallon Jug, and Seth rubbed his hand
and gave chuckle
FThey'd got bottle in each hand
them two" says he, they war gwine /,
make us slowed and then clean out GU
swag, but they don't fool this child, no
how. Naow, ye see, they'll wait till darl
and then go for us with rush--that'
what's the matter with them-but
guess Wen be mot at home when the
call"
He whispered to me to cut down thre
or four oe the longest creepers and twis
them into a rope, and l, guessing wha
he was up to, did it with will In
few minutes we had rope that woul
have stood anything; and then hitche
one end around a tree, and let drop tn
other down the ravine-the rest maxim
great shouting and singing meanwhil
by way ola blind. Then the old Indian
who was as nimble as a cat, slid down {
the bottom, and we lowered our pack
| to him one by one.
That's all right" said Seth; an
now we'll Just take it easy till dark, an
then take passage by this new overlan
route of ourn."
But one don't tai c II very easy whe
there's d gang of bloodthirsty rascal
twice your strength and armed to th
teeth, every man Jack of 'em, sittini
waiting barely eighty yards off to Gu
your throat; and | think / never f0un
any time yet go so slowly as those tw
last hours before sundown.
"Naow,n says Seth at last, when IN
darkness had fairly closed in, CUES