The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-10-20

well used up and didn't care about
getting up there till towards evening, so
he took out the cards and put in an hour
or two at casino.
We got to the houses just before
dark. They stood close by the stage
road on the slope of hill, with noun
tain behind and another in front
mountains ali around, in fact, except
down a long canyon that gave view Of
the town and the ocean. Yes; there
was that-town and the ocean in plain
sight, and we'd been all day getting up
there.
copper house. Sure enough, one
house did stand higher than the other,
and at that door, facing down the
canyon, must have been where he stood
when he saw the star. And he must
have taken the spade from that corner.
That house seemed to be shut up, but
an Indian woman and some children
came to the door of the other, and we
asked her for a drink of water. She
handed us an old can and motioned to a
spring near by, but didn't speak word,
and watched us suspiciously.
~
near the upper house, but she or one of
the children kept an eye on us. That
made the time seem longer than it was,
while we waited for the stars to come
out. When they did come out / went
and stood before the door and looked
back over my left shoulder, and there
was the north star, sure enough. ! felt
as if had the diamonds in my hands.
We went around to the back corner and
there was the big rock. All right. We
went up the hill slantwise and came to
some rocks. Rocks! You bet And
such rocks! All sizes and all shapes,
from high enough for house to low
enough for footstool. | must go back
to the Indian woman and try to get a
light to examine the paper, said, but
my partner said no, match would do.
put my hand in my vest pocket for it
and it wasn't there. 1t was not in any
of my pockets. must have dropped il
back in the shade where we rested and
played casino. To save the soul of me,
| couldn't remember either the number
of PAGES or the description of the rock.
We looked around in the dim light, my
partner grrmbling and cursing all the
time, till we heard what sounded like
the click of a rifle, and saw black
head and the CLEAN of a pair of eyes
around the point of a rock. We hur-
ried away out into big, open space
near by and across it. There we heard
low growl and saw grizzly bear and
two cubs. Dash my soul, if | didn't
think they were the same the man told
me about when he was dying, that killed
his partner. Was fustered little, you
see, and no wonder. | don't know in
what direction we went, only that we
went away from there and we didn't
stop to count any steps.
don't know how long it was till we
found ourselves in the road, but we did
find ourselves there. We took the back
track on till we came in sight of one of
the houses, and we cut off down a hill
and got into the road again, for it made
a bend there. We stopped at shanty
not FAR down till morning, and then we
went on to the place where we had
stopped, and there | looked and looked
for that paper, and rested and looked
again, till my partner got disguised and
threatened to put head on me, and
swore at me for all that was out.
| gave him half the change | had
left, and we went on down the noun
tain. He went on to town and | got
work at a farmhouse. / went from
there down the coast and did some con-
foundedly hard work about Los Angeles
and the islands. l came up here in
time for the wheat harvest, and have
Just got through long job with steam
thresher.
:" It's no use trusting TO luck-that is,
for me. My luck is bound to be always
bad luck"