The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-09-20

dark passage with a noise like horse
galloping on a plank sidewalk. When
he climbed out on the hillside and look
ed down, he saw a score of Indians
around the mouth of the cave, and one
of them was hopping around as If ne
didn't feel well. Lung Sing sat there
behind bush and chuckled and grim
ned for an hour, and when the redskins
departed he went back to his work,
sagely mnsing:
elf Injun nance fink I'm fool he
find outee.''
They were certain to come again. He
had no arms except light shotgun
and Ratchet, but he had come to stay.
The idea of his busting out of that just
because few hundred Indians might
object to his presence was too absurd to
contemplate. He stretched a score OF
bark strings across the mouth of the
cave, and then connected them with a
single string running back to his work.
This last string ran along the roof and
over stone splinter, and held up
stone which must fall to the floor if any
one attempted to displace the strings
across the mouth of the cave. When he
had finished this work and satisfied HIM
self that it could be depended on, the
heather drew down his left eye, slanted
his hat over his left ear, and quoted
Confucius.
The redskins weren't at all pleased
at the way they had been cheated, and
next morning whole car load of them
returned to the cave, having torches to
explore it. When they saw the bark
strings across its mouth they suspected
trap, and fooled around for two or
three hours. Meanwhile Lung-Sing
was playing hammer and pick, bring
ing down ninety per cent. of gold with
every ten per cent of stone. He had
struck it rich. "Spat!" came the stone
which he had fixed up for signal bell,
and the long-eyed heather scored for a
start and got away in fine style. The
Indians halted in the mouth of the cave
to peer around and light their torches,
and during this delay Lung-Sing wasn't
stopping to play marbles on the floor of
the cave. He emerged from the same
cavity as before, a little damp underthe
collar, but in prime condition. He was
making his left eye wink cutely at his
right, and figuring up the profits of his
mornings work, when he heard the In
dams coming. They had divided into
three bands and followed the three
passages. He got. Instead of making
for Boston Town or Measles City, he
slid down the mountain side and enter
ed the cave by the front door The In
dams had brought along almost a wag-
on load of dry grass and weeds, expect
ing to have to smoke him out. There
was strong draft through the cave, and
when the heather discovered the grass,
and saw that none of the savages had
remained behind, he nearly wrenched
himself to pieces to carry out a sudden
ly conceived plan. In the course of
seven or eight minutes he had carried
the grass to the point where the cave
split, and he choked each passage as far
as the material would 90. Then he pulled
out his matchbox and listened and
waited. He reasoned that the Indians
would return by the same routes, and he
was right. He heard them in the three
passages almost at the same time, and
when the foremost was not more than
40 feet away the match was lighted. The
grass was like finder, and the draft drew
the roaring flames into the passages in
an instant. Three grand yells from the
three bands reached Lung Sing at once,
and he put his finger on his nose and
softly said: "Lung- Sing somebody's
fool, maybe
The redskins got a terrible roasting
1t has been twice stated by members of
the same band that not a savage escaped
injury, and it is certain that more than
a dozen cooked and charred bodies were
found in the passage weeks afterward
by white men. Those who got out were
terribly burned, and several died at
their village. AS the redskins found no
one in the cave the fire appealed to their
superstition. They believed the place
to be occupied by the spirit of some out
lawed warrior, who had kindled the
flames in revenge on them for daring to
intrude. None of them had ever been
near the cave again up to six weeks ago.
Lung-Sing rearranged his signal, and
returned to his work. In the gray of
morning, six weeks after he had been
driven out of Boston Town, an early
riser caught sight of him again He was
trotting along at the head of four
pack mules and a dozen Cinnamon,
all loaded down, but he hadn't
time to stop and explain whether
they carried goods to set up an
''original dollar store'' in the Hills, or
had the material which yellow-boys are
made Of. The miners had their own
ideas about that, and after a close
search they discovered the cave and its
great riches.
eyes, the cave PANIED out immense
ly," remarked one of the discoveries the
other day, but we never half enioyed
the big strike. The idea that s0uint-