Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1886-07-03

one could really ma the END OF the DOW
he wo I'D also find the treasure"
Eyes, certainly" says Aunt Tina, with
a smile, ''if he could find the end of the
bow"
"Mr. Monk" questions a sharp, high
pitched voice at this moment, ''where do
you think that end of the rainbow ISL"
Mr.. Monk turns his head to follow the
direction pointed out by the nervous
brown finger.
THAT, Z" he repeats, with mischievous
twinkle in his eye. "Why, down Turner'S
Point, to be sure"
Il believe, MIR. Monk, says Aunt Tina
again, "t,,at you told me many beautiful
stones of rare value had been found in
the rugged cliffs of the canyon?"
Yes" returns Mr.. Monk, "several
fine rubies, sapphires and emeralds have
been picked up, it is said, but none of
late. l have never been so fortunate as
to find one myself, with a smile, ''but
the guides who were here before me
stumbled upon an exceedingly fine
emerald in the gorge below Turner's
Point"
All the way back to the hotel the
words "Down Turner's Point, to be sure."
keep beating time, syllable by syllable,
through SWANS busy brain. "Of course
it is" he reasons. ''Where else could it
be? Why, hasn't he seen it with his own
eyes resting right against the rugged
points of the biggest boulder2' He has
marked the place well. There is a
stunted pine at one side and great
clump of laurel bushes, rhododendrons
Aunt Tina calls them. On the other
there is great rock that shines in the
sunlight like it is streaked with silver,
with here and there cluster of beautiful
ferns and MOSES. and a tiny cascade
trickling down its sides, Ribbon Cascade,
Mr. Monk calls it. OF course the treasure
is there! And o, how he does want it
Not so much for himself as for Aunt
Tina-Aunt Tina whom he loves so dearly
in spite of the thought that sometimes
she is little too hard on him. But at
others how she does pet and humor m.
And 0, they are so happy to2ether Hap
pier still, perhaps, because in all the
world they have only each other. And
there is Aunt Tina's book. How hard
she had worked on it, day and night, and
how much she does want it published!
But the hard-hearted publishers, to
whom many pages of the snowy manu-
script have been submitted, have de-
clared they can't touch it till p lrt, at
least, of the money is Forthcoming, to
pay for some sort of plates. Swain Won
ders what kind of plates they can be, and
what in the world dishes have to do with
printing. He has ventured to ask Aunt
Tina once, but, being absorbed in her
work, she has only answered briefly,
Stereotype plates" and so he is as much
in the dark as ever.
If he could only get that money for
Aunt Tina; which she had never yet been
able to get herself, for Aunt Tina is only
a poor teacher with a meagre salary.
At three o'clock this same afternoon,
when every guest of the house is enjoy
ing his or Ter siesta, shut in the seclu-
sion of their rooms, slight figure clad
in flannel Knickerbocker, with sailor
waist OF the same, issues, stick in hand,
from side entrance.
Ten minutes later the same figure
makes its way along the railroad track to
where small foothpath turns off to the
left, with stunted pine near at hand
labeled: "To Turner's Point"
claims Swain. as, the path followed, he
stands at length besidea clump of dwarfed
pines and looks down upon the river
much more peaceful here than hundred
yards above, where its fury seems to have
been finally expended in the last of the
great cascades.
A STRANGE feeling of awe and dread
steals for moment into the child's heart
and he partly turns as though he would
go back The next, apparently ashamed
of even this faint show of cowardice, he
grasps his stick firmly and begins to climb
downward
There is no regular path, but he catches
sight here and there of trodden tuft of
grass and the shredded twigs of ash and
laurel that show plainly where the foot
and hand of the daring climber have left
their prints.
Very cautiously Swain picks his way at
first, then, as he finds it easier than he
has tho lght, he grows bo!der. Finally,
when about SEQ feet down, a projecting
ledge stops his further progress. Kneel-
ing down, he crawls to the edge and
looks over.
THE very placer" he cried excitedly,
"and l just know it is down there!"
But the "down there is fully hun
bred and fifty feet beneath him, and is an
other projecting ledge, but much larger,
and thickly covered with ferns and
MOSES, over which a thre ld-like cas-
cade trickles.
AS he leans further over, tiny some
thing that glitters in the suns rays
catches his eye.
1t is embedded in the soil of the ledge
a foot o, so beneath him.
Reaching down he quickly grasps it,
and then with an exultant little cry
springs to his feet. But the next mo-
ment the cry of exultation i, changed to
one of supplication and terror, for in the
sudden spring his feet have come in
contact with a treacherous tuft that is
barely hanging to the cliffs edge. As
they press against it, it gives way, and
the next moment he goes headlong over
the ledge.
Up at the hotel all is confusion and
excitement, for he has been missed, and
the mother-aunt, in her agony of terror,
is beseechlng landlord, clerk, guide,
walters, all to go in search of her darling
boy.
Only too we'll she surmises that in his
usual feerlessncss, and alive with the de-
sire to hunt out things for himself, he is
straying along the dizzy edge of the
dangerous chasm.
1t is twenty-four hours before they find
him, and at least fourth as many more
l. |. Al I