Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-11-02
GIANTS CASTLE.
BY MAJOR HAMILTON.

The western sun was resting for a sim
gle moment upon the shoulders of the
gray and hoary mountains, casting a last
bright glance behind him, ere he sank to
rest beyond the far away Pacific; the
purple shadows of the ridge creeping
slowly downward over bluff and precl
pice, waved silent greeting to their
grayer sisters, as slowly uprising from
the canyons and the gorges, the distant cry
of q lonely bird hoated softly downward
through the listening air, and as it passed
a mighty stiffness fell over all, while
along the eastern horizon black night
began to form.
Two solitary travelers-nor yet tray
elers, for both were frontiersmen and
miners-who were slowly climbing the
rugg ed face of the ridge, paused as they
reached its verge, and without speaking
looked sharply about them for several
moments, examining all the ground care
fully; then one uttered a low growl of
satisfaction, and pointing through the
cleaning toward the south, he turned to
his waiting companion and said:
Here's the trail, Tom, and the reds'lI
pass the Giants Castle over thar afore
moon-up tonight, if they're after us.
This yere war the way Black Jim went,
and he war; a-p'intin' fur the Apache
kentry fast enough. Ell the bloody cut
throat can git the Injuns to help him,
he'll go fur our rancho sure; but eft they
don't come were safe, fur to-morrer We'll
light over the range fur good. The
minin's good, but the kentry's gittin' too
hot fur us. It's cussed shame we
missed that dog to-day, fur otherwise
we'd have been safe under cover now,
an the world rid of a black rascal, in
stead of dodgin' about hyar in the shad-
ders to save our scalps. Howsomever,
we missed him; an now my plans to
climb the Giants Castle an wait fur
mornin'. Eli the reds come, they won't
find US at home, and eff they don't come
no great harms done; an eli they smell
us out on the Castle we could kill the
entire lot afore they could git near us. :"
The speaker paused and drew long
breath, fairly astonished and wearied at
his own unusual loquaclty, and his com
panion, changing his Winchester from
one shoulder TO the other, replied:
"Ye're right, Dick 1t. war pity
that [ missed the outlaw, but it war
only a snap shot. 1 won't do it ag'in'.
Yer plan fur the nights a good one.
Lead onp
With rapid and almost silent steps the
two passed over the ridge into the black
ness of the gulch beyond
And as they disappeared, there arose,
close to the very ground whereon they
had been standing, from behind a
gnarled and stunted cedar thicket, the
figure of man. Carefully he peered
about him, gazing sharply into the
darkness that had swallowed up the
others, listening with waiting ear for
any sound that might indicate their re-
turn; and at last rising to his full
height he stepped quietly forth, and
dropping his rifle stock to the earth, he
chuckled softly, and with a wicked
meaning to himself:
$50 yell hide from Black Jim an the
PEACHES in Giant Castle? Good! Ye
thought Black Jim would be simple
enough when he failed yer swag once to
run away. Fools! I had chance at
yer gold to-day an lost it; We had a
crack at me an missed. We're even,
but it's my turn next; an the shinin'
dust that you felle1s have in yer waist
belts shall be niue afore sun-up, or I'm
q half-breed. | don't want no inluns to
help, nor no cabius to burn, neither.
What I'm after is the gold, my pards.
an eff We stay on Castle Rock it's mine. %
AS he ceased his solloquy, the outlaw,
STOPPING almost to the earth, crept
rapidly away in the darkness, following
the course taken by the others.
Tom Nutting and Dick Moore had
been for month prospecting and min
ing in Hidden Valley without molesta-
ton. Fortune had smiled upon them.
and their buckskin bags were almost full,
when, returning unexpectedly to their
rude cabin that very afternoon, Tom had
surprised Black Jim, the most noted des-
perado of the mountains. and man who
had been often been driven from mining
camps as q thief, prowling near; had
shot at and missed him, and had seen
him speed away to the westward, toward
the section where were rowing the blood
thirsty Apaches.
Thoroughly acquainted with the i'm
minent danger of their position, for their
visitor was in league with all the Indian
bands for hundred miles about-the
two miners at once packed their gold