The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-12-05

seeing in fancy him kissin' her swee
little face, and she hanging on him: L
I was most mad afore, was ten times
worse now; and when heerd Hez com
in, I stood there on a shelf OF rock
where the track came along, meaning
to put half dozen plugs in him, ant
then pitch him into the Gulch. But
was that mad that when he came up
CHEEKY and singing, I forgot all about
my shooting.iron and bowie, and went
at him like bar, hugging and wrast.:
ling him till We fell together close te
tne edge of the Gulch, and had only
to give him shove, and down he'd ma
gone kelch on the hard rocks ninety feet
below.
"Now, Hez," says, chow about
your darling now? You'll cut in afore
a better man again, will yer?'
eyes, if live," he says stout like,
so as I couldn't help liking the grit he
showed. "That's right" he said
"pitch me over, and then go and tell
little Jael what you've done. Shell
be fine and proud of yer then, Abinadab
Scales!"
He said that as I'd got him hanging
over the rocks, and he looked me full
in the face, full of grit, though he was
as helpless as babby; bnt didn't see
his face then, for what I see was the
face of Jael, wild and passionate like,
asking me what I'd done with her love,
and nv heart swelled 30 that I gave a
sob like q woman, as I swung Hez round
into safety, and taking his place like,
"Shove me over," says, "and put me
out of my misery"
Poor old Hezl 7 hated him like
pyson but he wasn't that sort. Stead
of sending me over, now he had the
chance, he claps his hand on my shoul:
der, and he says, says he: "Dab, old
man" he says, "we can't all find the
big nuggets, and if I'm in luck, don't be
hard on yer mate"
Then he held out his fist, but I couldn't
take it, but turning off, I ran hard down
among the rocks till I dropped, bruised
and bleeding, and didn't go back to my
tent that night.
I got bit wilder after that. Hez and
Jael were spliced up, and I allus KEEP
away. Hez used to come to me, but
warned him off. Last time he come
across me, and tried to make friends,
"Hez," says I, "keep away. I'm des-
prit like, and I won't say I shan't plug
yer !"
Then Jael came, and she began to talk
to me about forgiving him but it only
made me more mad nor ever, and 80 l
went and pitched at the lower end of the
Gulch, and they lived at t'other.
Times and times I've felt as if I'd 90
and plug Hez on the quiet, but I never
did, though got to hate him more and
more, and never half 30 much as I did
nigh two years arter, when came upon
him one day sudden, with his wife Jasl,
looking pootier than ever, with little
white-haired squealer on her arm. An
it riled me above a bit to see him 80
smiling and happy, and me turned into
a bloodshot, drinking, raving savage, that
half the Gulch WAS feared on, and t'other
half daren't face.
Early one morning, as I lay in my
ragged bit of tent, I woke up sudden
like, to a roaring noise like thunder ;
and then there came whirl and rush,
and I was swimmin' for life, half choked
with the water that had carried me off.
Now it was hitting my head, playful like.
agen the hardest corners of the rock it
could find in the Gulch !; then it was hit
ting me in the back, or pounding me in
the front, with trunks Of trees swept
down from the mountains, for something
had bust-a lake, or something high up
and in about wink the hull settle
ment in Yaller Gulch was swep away.
"Wall," I says, getting hold of a
branch and drawing myself out, some on
'em wanted a good wash, and this II give
it EN-" for you see water had been
skeerce lately, and what there was had
all been used for cleaning the gold.
sot on q bit O. rock, wringing that
water cut of my hair-leastwise, no; it
was some one else like who sot there,
chaps I knowed, you see; and there
was the water rushing down thirty or
forty foot deep, with everything swept
before it-mules, and tents, and shan
ties, and stores, and dead bodies by the
dozen.
Unlucky for them," I says; and
just then I heard a wild sorter shrek,
and looking down, I see a chap half
swimming, half-swept along by the tor
rent, trying hard to get at tree that
stood t'other side.
"Why, it's you, is it, Hez ?" I says to
myself, as looked at his wild eyes and
strained face, on which the sun shown
full. "You're gone coon, Hez, lad ;
so you may just as we'll fold yer arms,
say amen, and go down like man. How
I could pot you now, lad, if I'd got
shooting iron put you ont O yer mis-
cry like. You'll drown, lad"
He made dash, and tried for branch
hanging down, but missed it, and got
swept against the rocks, where he showed
his arm between two big bits; but the
water gave him a wrench, the bone went
crack, and as I sat still there I see him
swept down lower and lower, till he
clutched at bush with his left hand,
and hung on like grim death.
"Sarve you right" I says, coolly.
"Why shouldn't you die like the rest
If Id had any go in me should have
plugged yer long ago."
"Holloa!" I cried then, giving start.
"It amt 'tis-tarnatiop it can't be p
But it was.
There, on t'other side, fifty yards low
er down, was bit Of shelf Of earth THAT
kept crumbling away as the water
washed it, was Jael, kneeling down with
her young 'un and as looked, some
thing seemed to give my heart iigg,
just as if some coon had pulled string.
"Well, he's bout gone," I says
"and they can't hold bout three min.
utes; then they'll all drown together,
and she can take old Hez his last babby
to nuss, 'cuss 'em I'm safe enough.
What's it got to do with me? I sha'n't
move"
took out my wet cake of 'bacca, and
whitfield off bit, showed it in my cheek,
shut my knife with click, and sot thai
watchin' of 'em-father, and mother and
bairn.
| uYon'va hean too hannv Won hive ,