Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-08-25

fever and suffered u dozen realities IN
imagination concerning my coming troubles
with Pratt e. Co.
I wrote Immediately to Broener, informing
him of the trouble But in those days COM
munication by mail with San Francisco was
slow. A week at least would elapse before
Broener could get my letter and return
CHAPTER X.
DEATH
Within three days Pratt and his partner,
Hillyear, had completed their cabin. Pratt
l saw starting out one morning with horn
and hammer. 1 knew by these tools he was
after quartz Hillyear remained behind to
work the bank near them, probably to make
expenses.
Quartz prospectors used to carry bit of
cows horn, so cut as to form an elliptical
shaped bowl 1t was better for washing pull
verized quartz than the larger gold pan.
Pratt took route through the chapparal
near the base of the mountain on the side
where lay our Bank" l worked a couple
of hours in miserable state of mind and
then betook myself to the Bank" intending
there to stay all day and guard it. In inn
aginaton I saw Pratt already there gloating
over the rich find. / composed the words in
which / should first address him. I framed
his answer and attitude toward me. pic
tured our gradual working up to actual hos
tilities, and then-I stopped in a slough OF
indecision
These were days when all disputes es-
pecially those regarding property, had, in
oc bob 10 anf 10
ment That was by knife or pistol. This
was the unwritten law Of the land and
stronger far than the written, which was
generally Knocked at and diregarded for
mality.
I was not fighter. dreaded the "last
resort" despised myself as physical cow
ard. 1 longed for something i'll my COM
position which would make me face pistol
or 20 into row with as much apparent zest
to take the chances" as had known some
men to do l admired such men for this
quality whether real absence Of fear or in
sensibility to results know not and depre-
Gated, aye, loathed myself, because l did not
have it. l saw in imagination everything
tending to such termination between my
self AMI Pratt Whether he would fight
or not never asked Iput him up uncon-
sciously as a man who was ION the shoot"-a
desperate character
True, had struck Pell, the second officer
of the Ann Mary Ann, and quite surprised
and even gratitied was to find l could strike
on occasions. But that was done on the
''spur of the moment" Had gone down to
the ship expecting such al affair, revolving
it, living it over in mind, would not like to
have had much wagered on lie Us to whether
1 should have gained the to lie longed-for
mood of physical combativeness.
l arrived at the "Bank." All was silent
and undisturbed. I remained there several
hours, hearing in every sound the new pros
pector's approaching footsteps. He did not
come. I wished at times he would, and end
the waiting and suspense I wondered where
he might be. Finally, my anxiety becoming
uncomfortable, l resolved to try and find out.
Softly let myself down the mountain side
through the chapparal toward the river
I had gone down about three hundred feet
and heard near by the sound of q pick.
Creeping through the brush | saw it was
Pratt. He dug to the ledge, here but few
inches from the surface, filed his horn with
W.
wash it. crept softly after him. Washing
the dirt, with what results 1 could not tell,
from his manner, he struck up the mountain
again and dug another horn full, about one
hundred feet to the north of the first. The
result of this washing seemed, judging from
his manner, more satisfactory. He then
Travelled a thousand feet further up stream,
assembled the mountain again, dug q horn
full on a level with the first. He washed it,
and shook his head presumed he did not
get the "color" He dug another horn about
two hundred feet nearer the first. The chap
paral was more open where he worked, and
could plainly see him from my place of con-
cealmcnt. Evidently this prospect did not
satisfy him. The next, taken within one
hundred feet of the last, seemed to yield
something. The afternoon was now far ad-
vanced Pratt ceased work and took bis
way home So did l.
1t was some satisfaction for me to find that
Pratt had not slit" directly on the Bank. ="
Pondering over the matter that night after |
had retired I drew for time some comfort
in the hope that he might drift in his work
away from it. This gave me some mental
rest until fiend dropped into my head-a
new and most alarming theory, based on his
motions Us seen that day. Pratts little pros
pect holes, l noticed, were dug over an area
broad at the base of the mountain, but mar
rowing more and more as he went up. What
did that mean? In flash l saw what, and
jumped out of my blankets with the shock OF
the discovery He was horning gold which
had washed down from the Bank" The
Bank" did not cover much ground. Prob
ably the colors washed from it by the cle-
mental wear and tear of centuries would not
be found at the. base of the mountain much
beyond line four or five hundred feet in
length. Outside of this at either end the
soil would he barren of gold Inside of that
number of feet it would yield the color, and
this color-yielding ground would narrow as it
went up the mountain until it reached the
lead it had rolled from-the fountain head,
the Bank" Roll bag of shot down an in
clincd plane and you have the idea. The
farther the shot roll the more will they
spread So with gold rolled from any quartz
vein ON mountain side as the top of tho
vein rock has rotted away and left the metal
''free." Pratt was OH the true scent. Day
by day, narrowing as he went up was he
tracking the game to its den! 1 had, then,
to stay by the claim and watch the enenys
gradual approach.
Next morning reloaded my six-shootcr,
previously firing the old charges, which l
feared might be damp A few minutes after
heard Pratt banging away, obviously SINH
larly occupied. 1 prepared my weapon for
coming possibilities with a very faint heart
did SO, only because it was the thing to do
the custom of the country. felt the whole
moral influence of the time TOR immoral, if
you pleasc,) forcing ME thus to prepare for
war, while l was sick of war and all that aE-
pertained to it.
By ten o'clock I was on guard again,
watching Pratt. The enemy was gradually
advancing and converging Oh our works.
He was already one hundred feet higher up
and so much nearer the Bank" His pros
pect holes now covered only al area OF three
hundred feet
By noon he had left off the drudging ascents
and descents of the mountain to the river to
wash his prospects He was occupied en-
tirely with the float quartz" here thickly
scattered about as it had rolled from the