Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1885-06-13
SELECT STORY.
THE MINERS STORY.

two old Westerners sat together,
smoking and chatting. Presently the |
conductor came along, bit the end off |
a cigar, lighted it and, joined them.
One of the men was a miner, and the
other cattle raiser. They were both |
full of anecdote. The miner was the
first to get his feet on the sea ahead of
him and remarked slowly: "Seven
years ago this winter was a mighty
cold season in our camp. The weather
was colder'n usual, there wasn't any
water, we were short of grub, and the
Indians were very troublesome. We
had about fifteen or sixteen in the
camp I believe, and we had to go
pretty easy on our edibles, so as to
make them last. I had been keeping
several men there, thinking every day
that we'd strike something rich, and
when they got more and more diss at
isfied promised the bigger and bigger
shares. l could see that the men were
getting about ready to jump me, and
that they had begun to look upon me
as something of lunatic. They
would hold long conferences together,
speaking in low tones, and when
came around they would pretend to
be talking about the weather or some
thing of the kind. | had used them
all pretty we'll, and they hated to leave
me, but they were getting uneasy.
"One day towardsundown, when |
was ready to give up, young Mex
lean couple, who were bound for Sono-
"a, struggled into our diggings, a good
deal the worse for wear. They had
been up in Colorado, and had started
for homo with team driver, but the
indians had got on their trail, killed
the driver, and stole the horse and
wagon. The traveller managed to get
away while the driver was holding the
savages at bay, and, lying in hiding
until night fall, they had worked their
way on foot into our camp. The
young woman was one Of the prettiest
girls I ever saw. She was about sick
abed when she arrived but the next
day she was around as clipper as any
body, and the boys were making them
selves very agreeable. Says to my
self: This is a special dispensation of
Providence; if can keep the girl here
,-rl,;lo +bo,o will Io no +roublo about
the boys; they'll stay too. I never
heard word of grumbling from them
that day or the next.
81 was little afraid the greaser
would get jealous and knife somebody;
but then thought if he does the rest
of the boys will finish him, and then
we will have the girl any way. The
Mexican seemed anxious to get away,
but made one excuse and another for
not helping him right away, and one
day he was missing. He had eloped
during the night leaving the girl with
us. Well, she was pretty well cast
down for awhile, but | explained to
her that probably her husband had
gone on to get horses and an escort,
and that he had taken thisscourse be-
cause he knew that she would have
objected to his going alone. This faint
hope seemed to give her some comfort,
and the rest of the boys fell in with
me. and it became the settled convic-
ton in the camp that he would be back
presently She livened up some and
the boys made themselves very agree
able. When two weeks had gone by
and nothing as yet had been heard of
her husband she insisted on being taken
home, and offered us any amount of
money, which she said her father
would pay, if we would escort her over
the border.
| began to fear that her husband
was never coming back, and, to tel
the truth, | had still stronger sus-
picion of something else so | agreed
to start with her the next morning at
sunrise, and told her to be in readiness.
That afternoon we heard unearthly
screams up one Of the gulches, and
several Of the boys, running up with
blanched faces to see what the matter
was, found the little woman beside n
new-made and very shallow grave, in
to which she had dug far enough 10
discover the body of her husband. AS
the boys stood there aghast, she sprang
up quickly, and, drawing revolver,
shot two of them dead before any of
us could find voice. threw up hands
and begged of her to desist, and when
some of the boys grabbed their guns,
| pulled mine and made them put
them up. Then | got her back to the
cabin, disarmed her, set one trusty
fellow to watch her, and called the
others up into the gulch. We I'M
covered the dead man and found two
bullet holes in the back.
"Who put them there?" said l,
sternly to the men.
"The two men whom she shot" they