Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1882-03-18
VIM. b. GROVE,
WITH
VIM. H. BROWN & BRO,
IMPORTERS AND WHOLESALE
d r U G. G. L S T S.
% S. Sharp St. Baltimore.
BOB DAYTON'S MINE.

AAAO AeSAAAAA"A CA6hS Va WV JOuA6 ttcSCo
or Jacks" as the miners call them,
loaded with mining tools and provis-
ions, and driven along by two miners
who walked behind them, would have
attracted but little attention among the
loungers in front OF the Grand Hotel at
Cedar Gulch, had it not been for two or
three peculiar circumstances which
'Ool." Brown proceeded to narrate to
the bystanders.
Since coming to Colorado three years
before, the colonel had succeeded, with
ont any visible means Of support, in
maintaining an existence as free from
toll as that of the lilies, and by his
abundant leisure, his skillful disposal
of tobacco juice and his success at the
faro table had fairly won his title. The
talker and his audience leaned against
the rough logs of the one-storied Grand
Hotel. Aiming brownish food at a
dusty stone some feet away, the colonel
began:
"Queer pards, those. There's Bob
Dayton-he amt much more than a
tenderfoot, but he's white man right
through. But as for Sandy Joe,
wouldn't trust him as fur as I could see.
Ifhe didn't jump that claim of Cap.
Perry's last winter, I'm Coyote. How
Dayton ever happened to strike in with
Joe,I can't see, except that Bob's rather
fresh in this country. You ought to
have heard him last night tell me in
confidence all about his girl out in Ohio,
Lizzie, I think, he called her. He was
poor, and she was poor; and he didn't
see much hope Of getting married un-
less they wanted to live on little less
than nothing. So he came out here to
find his fortune. Hope he'll getlt. He
deserves to, anyway, going out pros
pecting on the mountains in Colorado O
in Octob r. Like as not there may be
three feet of snow on the mountains to-
morrow. Joe ought to know better, at
any rate; but he's reckless enough to
do anything. By the way, Bill, what
about that roam horse that Powers lost
upon Mount Shavano2 Hasn't found it
yet, eha He better be looking around
lively, If he expects to get it down be-
fore the snow comes? ?"
And then the conversation of the
group in front Of the hotel at Cedar
Gulch drifted off on to other topics,
while the two men of whom the colonel
had spoken proceeded on up the gulch,
and turning to the right struck the trail
leading up the sides OF Mount Shavano.
A great contrant was apparent in the
lookss and manners of the two men
working together in the close compan-
ionship which is implied in mining
regions by the term partners"
Robert Dayton was tall, fair haired
young man with frank, open counte.
nance that made him friends even
among the rough class of men among
whom his lot was cast in a Colorado
mining camp. He had been we'll edu-
Gated by father who had left him only
his education as an inheritance. He
had become engaged to a pretty and
rich girl, but her father lost in grain
speculation most of the wealth that he
had acqvired, and Robert was unwilling
to urge her to speedy marriage un-
less he could provide for her home
with at least some of the comforts to
which she had been accustomed. Ac-
cordingly he bad sought the silver land