The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-10-20
OUR STORY TELLER.
-----------------------------
THE POT OF DIAMONDS.
BY MARCELLA.

BY MARCELLA.
1t was sometime have poor mem
DRY for dates-in the autumn of 10
that | found myself just at dark in the
little town of Hollister. | ate my sup
per served by waiter who shouted
every order at the top of his voice to
John in the kitchen q knew the indi
vidual presiding there was John by the
taste of the viands,) and retired TO my
room. had had long hard days
travel for an invalid, all the way from
Monterey, only resting for an hour at
Selinas, and had walked good
deal crossing the mountains so l went to
bed early. | dc not know how long /
had slept, when | vas awakened by the
voices of two men in the next room.
Now / have heard it intimated as sly
slur on our sex that two women occupy
ing the same room do not sleep, but
talk all night Now this is not true.
have slept in the same room with many
a one, and was never guilty of wasting a
whole night that way but twice; once
when the young lady who shared my rest
had taken too much new cider, which
an officious friend had cunningly i'm
proved to suit his own constitution,
by the addition of Just the least bit in
the world of whisky, and she insisted
upon confiding to me the experiences she
had never known and circumstantial ac-
counts of offers that she had only vainly
wished for; and once when my room
mate was very dear friend, Presby-
terrain several shades bluer than myself,
and we differed upon a point of theology
hot 80. l., r
to sleep.
But men in the same circumstances, if
they do not talk all night, do certainly
talk great deal, for it has been my fate
in the course of my life to be compelled,
owing to thin partitions to hear them
several times. And | will do them the
justice to add that in every instance ex-
cept the one | am about to relate, their
talk was as innocently insipid as that of
school girls. But these men spoke of
the strange experiences in new lands.
They were familiar and confidential like
old friends, yet they said nothing to in
dictate that their acquaintance dated
further back than to that evening S
drinks at the bar, the merits of which
they briefly discussed. Much that
heard was too fragmentary to gather up,
and there was only one story that re-
member we'll They were apparently
believers in Luck, and this story was re-
lated by one of them as an instance of
the peculiar cussedness of the luck that
had usually attended him.
!" | was dead broke-had spent the last
of good-sized pile had made in the
mines trying for pretty, fair looking
Spanish widow with good ranch. |
thought | had sure thing, but blue
eyed chap with light hair came along
and cut me out. So l took to sheep
herding. 1t was confoundedly lonesome
you may bet your life, so when a man
rode up to my hut one evening, and lust
dropped off his lean broncho, and beg
ged me to take him in for Gods sake, |
felt considerably willing. He had got
lost among the foothills he said, but
he'd most likely been hiding. He ate
like wolf that night, but the next
morning he couldn't get up, and he peg
ged out in few days. | laid him out
on board-a little too short for him it
was-and shut him in the cabin for day
or two and camped outside The owner
of the sheep and some friends of his
came out about that time for a
hunt and we took him out and buried
him.
" / wouldn't have stopped there day
longer IT l could have got off but / had
to wait nearly month for my pay, and
then | went. Afraid Oh, no, there was
nothing to be afraid of. The ground is
full of dead men and they are safer gem
orally than live ones. But he told me
his story and gave me paper, leastways
it looked like very thick paper, it might
have been very fine buckskin, with a few
words and figures on it, and | had good
reason to think | had fortune within
reach and didn't feel like herdino
sheep. What he told me was about this:
lie was one of the desperadoes who
run the Yankee Blade on the rocks some
where near Point Conception, good
many years ago. Never heard of it?
Well l can't give the particulars, but
they, took passage aboard the boat, it
seems, and got her wrecked. 1t was well
known that there was immense wealth on
board. In the confusion they got off
with what they could get. 1t was said
that several of the richest passengers
were murdered, though this man didn't
say SO. He and his partner got off with
a valise full, besides what they had on
their person. They made their way UP
the coast, but got lost in the widest,
barest region, he said, out of Hades.
And there they were, with diamonds
and jewels and more gold than they felt
able to carry, starving day after day.
For two days they had no water. They
cursed the Yankee Blade, and the
plumber and themselves, and each other
and the God that made them. Tbev
held on to the plumber though, and kept
together, and they found water and
stopped by it to rest. Then they shot
rabbits with their revolvers and feasted.
and when they went on they found a
trail that led in the direction thew
wanted to go, but it wasn't long till they
run across a grizzly bear with two cubs.
They both sprang for trees, but his part
ner fell back when he was part way up.
owing to his holding on to the valise.
The old bear tore him to pieces.
the cubs shifted at him minute and then
went on toward the water.
" was sitting by the trunk as he told
me the story, and here he took me by the
arm and rolled his eyes till the cold chills
ran down his back.
got down after awhile" he said.
and looked at that partner of mine
He had been handsome man-one of
the handsomest in San Francisco. IF
you had seen fine ladies, real heightened
ones, too, as | had, hardly month be-
fore, looking up in his face as thew
waltzed with him r,o,,,d bo,.o -