Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-03-25
CHAPTER VIII.

pup why, dSktu 40 you trust me,
almost stranger to you, with your secretY
For this reason" replied Broener First,
because believe l can trust you: secondly, |
have long wanted companion and assistant
In one and the same person The honest ones
| among the Bull Bar crowd viii get drunk.
and whisky reveals more secrets than women
though, for that matter, | think quite as
many gossips are running around in panta-
looms as in petticoats need you to keep up
show of work on my bogus claim while |
am in San Francisco. There / must go from
time to time to get my quartz gold smelted
and assayed. Miners law requires one days
work In thirty on every claim in order to
keep possession of it. l want you TO potter
around and keep up a show of work on
the bank in front of the cabin. In the
miners estimation hereabouts you are
to be my partner in that claim. |
don't want to seem mysterious, and il ]
don't keep up clatter of work about here
l shall be, through leaving so often and
letting the bank stand idle Then / want
you to slide up from time to time to our
real claim on the mountain and see that
it's all right. And while think, of it mind
you break no regular path going up and
down. It's very natural for men pros
pecting about in strange places on finding
any sort of trail to follow it, | think
it's the cattle instinct in man-the same
that makes sheep and cows follow each
other Men who succeed [ notice gen
orally go out of beaten paths So mind in
your travelings up and down from the
Bank to keep your footsteps as much as
you can out of the same tracks. We must
keep shady and lie low It's not SO much
the fellows about here now that fear.
RatN m n
restless prying, searching-maybe know
ing and reasoning as l have done on this
matter, and if their eyes fall ON a bit of
that white rock on the mountain side or at
its bottom they'll be clambering up hunting
for it. Should they do so in my absence and
find no one in possession it would be ell I'D
with me, for there's no law now to regulate
that description of claims-except the law of
might Now do you see how much | need
youl You're quiet, shy and not talkative.
Those qualities are all helps TO me- A talk
alive man, with this secret inside of him.
couldn't help in some way letting it out. He'd
kill himself at last with hints and knowing
grimaces. The best way to keep a secret is
to forget it yourself-till it's wanted What's
always on the mind is very apt to write itself
on the face. Make people suspect you know
something they don't and you start EN- ON
the hunt to find it out But what in thunder
am doings Preaching and philosophizing.
Let's go home and start a new brood of flap
jacks for supper"
Broener filed sack with as much of the
quartz as he could conveniently carry and
we took our way homeward Ascending fer
out of sight and sound of the busy crowds he
low the eye fell on peak after peak. far and
near, their sides covered with the dark green
carpet of chapparal, which in places as
thrown in shadows, was almost black. There
was no sight nor sound of living thing A
shadow fioated along on the red earth.
looked up. 1t was huge turkey buzzard
wheeling through the air as noiseless as the
shadows he cast
There was something weird and gloomy in
it all The land did not seem made for b,,-
man habitation. 1t seemed new, unfinished
as of recent date from some tremendous vol,
canic upheavaL
This impression quickly vanished on reach
ing Broener's cabin, now cast into a grateful
and cooling shade by the afternoon sun The
long shadows of the hills on our bank of the
stream were rapidly stealing up the sides of
those on the other. The direct and oppressive
outpour of noon heat was over, and now. mast
the middle of the afternoon, there seemed to
food of vitality.
Broener had allowed the manzanita hush
its dark mahogany stem contrasting so strong,
ly with its dark green leaves, to remain uncut
all about his cabin.
at screens me from observation said he
land l find it advantageous not to be seen
in all my comings and goings.n
After supper he proposed a trip to the Bull
Bar store Tor trading post as many called
it,, about two miles down the river Thither
we went
ITO go to the store after supper is tbs
regulation with five-sixths of the Bull Bar
ites,n said Broener. They would consider
their day incomplete without such visit
1t was store, boarding house, bar, post and
express office combined--full of miners in
their working clothes. Every barrel head
was used as a seat SO were boxes, tables and
the doorsill As we entered, the proprietor.
small, energetic, bustling man, was scold-
ing a giant in comparison with himself
"Big Dickr-for sitting on the counter.
II want you to know" said he, ''that this
counter is to sell goods on, and not to sit on.
If you want to retail yourself, get counter
of your own. You come up here every night
and plank yourself on my counter as if l had
built it for an arm chair. If you want to be
sold I'll lay you on the shelf with the other
goods, and take you down when callei fat:
But want you to keep your beef off my
counter"
The giant took the reproof good naturally,
and moved off rs desired
s'Mr. Rankin, said another customer, "are
those canned oysters of yours goodp
''Good!n replied Mr.. Rankin 'sOf course
not. They're Baltimore oysters, put up rot
ten. shipped round Cape Horn rotten, sold to