Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-02-07

binding snow, never faltering, never
despairing, for six long hours!
Bilrs greeting was characteristic:
swell done, pards! l know'd you'd
come. The kid was better at the cabin;
but whether alive or dead now I don't
know. Look an see."
Little John was alive and warm.
'.Now, pards, there's six O. you.
Balaam's pretty nigh played out.
Shoulder the ends O. them 'ere poles an
strike for Caspar's cabin-first trail tc
the left after We strike timber. BALKAN
an I'll 20 back to the cabin, an come
over in the mornin'. You kin wait fol
me. I'll come-for I've learnt sumthin'
at that thar cabin. an I'm goin' to see
this thing through
The six men took up the litter, anC
Bill and BALKAN went back to the cabir
at timber-line. They had packed the
trail pretty we'll coming down in line,
and SO, without special difficulty, though
slowly and YEARLY. they gained the
summit, and the dreadful and critica,
fifty feet once passed, they felt thai
their troubles were ended.
The next morning was bright ont
on the eastern slope of the main range.
Low down in the big timber. nestled il
warm nook, with an eastern ano
southern exposure, was a miners cabin.
Already the water was dripping from
the roof-logs which overhung the front
the pile of mineral specimens on the
rude shelf beside the door sparkled ir
the sunshine; the dog basked upon the
chips; the burros rubbed their necks to.
gether at the watering place; the fire
was swapping in the rude forge, and 9
miner was heating and pounding his
drills and picks. Other men were sit
ting on the shafting timbers which were
piled around, smoking their pipes and
talking of the sick boy who lay within.
Little John had already made his way
to these strangers hearts.
He was not delirious now But he was
pale, and wore a hopeless look that was
pitiful. No one of them thought he had
yet come out from the dark shadow,
and there was sadness in their faces
and hush in their voices.
After few hours Bin came. The
miners proposed to 60 to the railroad
station for aphysician and such deli.
cac;es as mining camps do not af.
ford. Bill accepted the proposition in
regard to the delicacies, but insisted
that he himself would be nurse and
physician.
Under his rough but gentle care the
boy rapidly improved, and at the end OF
the week Bill called the two Half Moon
men out for little talk.
.'Hev yer got any plans bout this
kid?"
Both answered that they had not.
They left everything to him.
"Well, then, hev: an I'm goin' te
say to you two what I've never said to
any man for more n thirty year. Wher
they wuz all goin' to Californy, in '49,
l wanted to 60, too. I wuz kid, then,
younger than this un. lived in York
State. There wuz on'y one O. me-
Mother wuz widow. She didn't want
me to skip out, but stole seventy dol
lars--all the money she had-an' Ii,
out. l wuz goin' to 60 back in year
or two, with thousands " dollars, an
make the old lady comfortable for the
balance o. her life. But somehow
didn't git back. Bimeby word come she
died NV a broken heart.
ether amt been many nights since,
pards, when l wuz sober, that l amt
seen her; an pards, so help ME God
that night on Red Mountain, size went
with me from the cabin at timber-line,
an all the while, back ards and for.
lords, she sDalkcd beside me. an helTeG
me pack that Their trail, until We came
Then she went away. could never
done it alone, pards-never!
well, this kid wuz clear-headed nj
the cabin on '''other side, an him an
me talked an talked. We've talked
here. An, you see, he was a clerk OF
sOmethin' in bank. back in Ohio; an
there was money stole! They took him
up for stealth it; but somehow they
couldn't prove it on him, an had tc
turn him loose. But many people sale
he stole it all the same, an he couldn't
bear the disgrace, an so come to the
mountains. His mothers poor. What
he got in the burned bank wuz all both
on 'em had. Since he come to P'cblo
he's fOun' out who did steal that money.
But he hain't got a sinner to 20 hack
with an set himself right. That's how
he's here.
''Now. pards, I've got nineteen
thousand odd in the Leadville Bank,
paid in on my Belden sale 1 hain't
got pesky relation in the world, an if
| git my hands on that money I'll likely
blow it in. So I'm goin' to send that
kid home, an give ten thousan' to his
mother. The balance is a big enough
stake fur me; an then, We see, if do
good thing for his mother may be it'll
count agin the internal meanness l did
mine! So we II take him down to Hay
denis, an one O. you can stay with him
an t'other 60 up with me to Leadville
an get some money an a dra!t-rye
got her name an whar she lives-an'
then we'll come back an send him
home, an send the draft to his mother.
Dye see?''
Three days afterwards they put Little
John in sleeping-car, with ticket
and fifty dollars in his pocket, and on
the same day draft for ten Thousand
dollars was mailed to his mother in a
letter Of remittance signed: IAN UN-
KNOWN FRIEND"
Two hours afterwards Bill Lewis in.
suited a respectable stranger and pro-
voked a fight at the railroad station,
and before morning was arrested fol-
cutting a man in gambling house,
L.