Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1885-08-06
Nv Luck in a Tunnel.

nowaday stripe, but on old forty-nine
Californian miner. have been engag-
ed in all description of mining transac-
tions, except the new.fangled one of
mining stock in companies 'feet,n |
believe they call IL. Among my varied
undertakings was one operation in a
tunnel, iu which and my partn ers EN-.
gagged in the summer of 1852.
Que afternoon in that year, as was
carrying up bucket of water from The
river to our tent ut the top of tho-oank,
my foot caught under q large stone,
and my perpendicular was at once
changed to horizontal posture, while
the water from the. overturned bucket
spread itself in various directions.
raised myself to my feet again, and
picking up the bucket was about to re-
trace my steps to the river, when my at
tention was attracted by q folded paper,
which had been placed under the stone
caus M my fall. When my foot tlip-
ped, the stone was overturned, and the
paper folded in letter form, lay exposed
to view. Bending over. picked it up,
and proceeded toexamine it. was writ
ten with pencil, In characters very ir.
regularly and stiffly formed. as il made
by person with a wounded hand. The
contents were rs follows:
II this letter should fall into the
hancs OF any person, wish 10 inform
them that i have been attacked and
mcrtally wounded by my two partners
who wish to obtain my money. Fail
ing to discover it. after wounding me,
they have fed, leaving me hereto die.
Whoever gets this letter willsfrd, bur.
led in ravine at the foot of a 'blazed'
tree, twenty five PAGES due north of this
bag containing FIVE thousand dollars
IN gold dust. That it may prove more
fortunate property 20 him than it has
to me, is the hope Of
ANDREW FORREST.
stood for some minutes after read.
ing the letter like one awakened from
a dream. could not conyince myself
that the letter In my hand was a genu-
inc document, ,and read 1t oyer and over
again, thinking I might get some clue
from the handwriting to the real au-
thor. 1t might be a trick got up by my
partners to raise a laugh at my expense.
No, the place where it was found, and
the purely accidental discovery, render
ed such surmise very improbable. /
sat down on a log aud turned the mat
ter over in my mind for some time.
At last got up, and pacing off the re.
quired distance in the direction men
toned in the letter, / came to a large
tree. Carefully examining it, I discov.
cred scar clearly indicating that the
tree had been "bIazed'' at some remote
period. This was "confrmation strong
as proof of Holy Writ )" and ] imme-
diately went TO work to discover the
locality of the ravine. Here was at
fault. Nothing of the kind was to be
seen. To all appearances stream of
water never had passed in the neigh
borhood of the tree. This was not en-
couraging and sat down on the
ground and read the letter again, to see
IL had not mistaken some Of its di.
rections. No, I was in the right place.
but where was the ravine ?
A tap on the shoulder aroused me
from nay meditation, and on looking up
saw my two partners, who loudly a.
bused me for having neglected the
preparations for their supper. As an
excuse showed them the letter, and
detailed the manner of finding it. To
my surprise, they were as much excite.
ed by its perusal as l had been, and
looked around perseyeringly for the
ravine, but without effect for some
time. At last Jack Nesbitt, who had
been miner since '4S, said :
| 81. think there has been rayine
| here, but it has been filed up by the
rains. ~
On close examination we decided
| that his suspicion was correct, and af-
ter some consultation we determined
| that the next morning we would COM
mence digging.
| Morning came, and We repaired to
1 the spot with pick and shovel. Jack
proposed that we should follow the
course Of the ravine. which appeared to
run into the body Of the hill, rather
than to dig down in any one place.
The result was that in a few days we
had formed quite cave in the side Of
the hill.
We worked at this tunnel for four
days without finding the bag. On the
fourth day Jack promised that he and
my other partner, Bill Jennings, should
carry the dirt down to the river, and
wash it. leaving me to dig in the tuu-
mel. In that way, they thought, we
might at least ''make grub," while
| e. kla b;lIo,, v~ooyav