The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-11-06
DIAMONDS AND GOLD.
A Tale of The Far
West.

ibo; the opening scene being at little
mining city to which Twill give the name
of Nuggetville. The time is the autumn
OF 1856.
The 'Elderado Restaurant and Saloon"
was an hotel--every rubbishing bit of an
ealing-and-drinking shanty in the Very
Far West is an hotel-whieh did cap
ital business, and was kept by one Alex
ander Macpherson, a taciturn, miserly
old fellow of doubtful antecedents, with
a sharp head on his shoulders and no
principles worth speaking about, and who
had passed many years in first one gold
country and then another.
His "help," "bar-keep," and general
factotum, was young Englishman
known in the old country, where he had
been a male butter fly of society, as Hugh
Mostyn, but familiarly spoken of among
the rough miners, ever great at bestGw-
ing nicknames, as "the cockney." He
had landed in the colony during the
gold excitement of '62, short of money
but rich in hope, firmly persuaded that
he was going to make fortune in few
months, had rapidly spent all he pos
sessed, tried the ca lings of newspaper
boy, omnibus-driver, grocers assistant,
lie see of Il cigar-store whose four previous
owners had successfully achieved bank
ruptcy, cook at the prispn-the prisoners
,uryiving!-and several other things;
and had now for about couple Of
months been servant to old Macpherson.
And was only too glad to have secured
the situation. The wages, for that part
of the world, were microscopic, for the
keeper of the "Eldorado" passed himself
off a; a poor man. Nigh dead-broke," !"
was the expression he used.
How far this assertion is true, my sto-
ry will show.
One day, towards the end Of Septem-
ber, while the mining season was still at
its height, and when all things were at
their busiest, Macpherson walked up in
the little den behind the saloon, which
was his sanctum and bedroom, PROSTATE
and helpless, victim to sharp attack of
rheumatism. Touched at the sight of
the old mans pitiable condition, and
also, perhaps, dreading lest death should
ensue, and the business they were then
the barman felt convinced, making SC
thriving concern, I've broken up, Hugh
exerted himself both to nurse his master
and at the same time attend to the res
taurant.
In the afternoon, work having slack
ened, and the saloon being only half full
of gamblers, leafers, hard-drinkers and
the like, Seth w. Jones lounged up tc
where Hugh stood behind the bar. Now
of all the people the latter knew in Mug
getville, this specimen of the "honest
miner" was the one he most cordially
detested. And no wonder. For Seth
Jones, a long, lean, lantern jawed, i'll.
conditioned fellow, with his rowing eyes
set much nearer together in his head
than any respectable man has right to
have them, always looked as if he had a
least dozen murders on his conscience
and would not have minded adding :
dozen more.
Sud Seth, who seldom wasted words:
"Boss sickT'
''Macpherson is laid up with rheuma
tism," politely made answer Hugh, who
dared not rebuff the man he feared.
"Guess Pll take a drink" said the Wis
itor, "brandy straight, ii. e., 'neat") ano
drank off the whole measure at draught
made not the slightest pcrceptible differ
ence in him.
He then leaned on the counter hem
med the barman in, and set himself tt
extract everything in the way of inform
alton he could about Hugh himself, thu
amount of business done at the ''Eldor
do" and the private affairs of the "Eldo
RADIOS" proprietor.
y Never had the Englishman been p,l
slnder such stiff cross Oss-examination tn
"down-easter" of fiction or fact was, il
the matter of inquisitiveness, nothing t,
Seth W. Jones; but dread of the ques
toner and doubt of the motive of 81
much curiosity, made Hugh cautious il
his replies. Indeed, of his masters pri
vate affairs he knew absolutely nothing
But Seth, who was 'cuteness itself, real
his victim as easily as an open book.
'That was a strange hint Jones drop
about old Sandie having pile" though
Hugh, as, after attending to his master
wants, he retreated to the saloon, AM
rolled himself up for the night in hi
blankets. But he was far too exhauste'
with his days work to lie puzzling abou
the matter, so quickly fell asleep, no
stirred till cock-crow.
"Could there have been any truth il
it, / wonderT' he then said to himself, a
he pursued the train of thought of tn
previons evening.
Seth's suggestion henceforth haunte,
him; and he furtively watched his EN-
ployer as he had never before dreame
of dSing. He took note of the fact tina
Macpherson who in a marvelously shor
time was we'll again and about, neve
"loafed" from house to house, or CLAIM
to claim, or lazy group to lazy group
like other folks, nor cared to visit tn
Nuggetville theater to cast upon th
stage at the feet of favorite actresse
nuggets Of ten or twenty-dollar pieces
the gold-miner's substantial substitut