Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-11-21
CUNTINUED.
VIII.
COMPACT.

"But why" i aSlei, do YOU trust INC,
almost a stranger tn YOU. with your secretF
For this reason replied Brnener. First
because / believe l c0I trust you secondly, L
have long wanted a companion and assistant
in one and the same person The honest ones
the Bull Bar crowd will get drunk,
and whisky reveals more secrets than women
though, for that matter, l think quite as
many goSsips are running around in panta-
looms as in p~etticodtS need you to keep up
a show Of work on my bogus claim while L
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. 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 l
don't want to seem mysterious, and II 1
don't keep up q clattsr Of work about here
/ hall be, through leaving so often and
letting the bank stand idle. Then l want
YOU To slide up from time TO time TO our
real claim On the mountain and see that
ifs all right And while / think, Of it mind
Won break no regular path going up and
nOWn us NtAN AANoAeAA W . -
pecting about in strange places on finding
any sort of a trail TO follow It. L thlhN
it,S the cattle instinct in man-he same
that makes sheep and cows follow each
other. Men who succeed L notice gen
orally go out Of beaten paths So mind IN
YOUR trayelings up and down from the
Bank u keep your footsteps as much as
YOU can out Of the same tracks. We must
keep shady and lie low. It's not 50 much
the fellows about here now that l fear.
But new men ara arriving all the time
restless, prying, searching maybe know
inc and reasoning rs | have done on this
matter. and Il their eyes fall Ou a bit Of
that white rock on the mountain side or at
its bottom they'll be ~clambering up hunting
for il. Should they do so in my absence and
find no one in possession 1t would be all up
with me. for there's no law now 10 regulate
that description Of claimS-eXcePt the law OF.
might Now 90 YOU see how much I need
YOU. You're quiet, shy and not talkatlye.
Those Qualities are all helps To me. a talk
alive man, with this secret inside Of him,
couldn't help insOme way letting it out. He'd
kill himself at last with hints and knowing
pTimaces. The best way to keep u secret IS
10 FORGET il yourself-tiu its 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 'em ou
the hunt to find it out. But what IN thunder
am | doingi Preaching and ph~ilosophizing.
Let's 20 home and start a new brood Of flap
jacks for supper
BrOener filed a sack with as much Of the
quartz as he could conveniently carry, and
We took our way hOmeward Ascending far
cut of sight and sound Of the busy crowds be-
low the eye fell on peak after peak, far and
near. their sides covered with the dark green
CARPET Of sehapparal, which in places, aS
thrown in shadows, was almost black. There
was no sight nor sound OF living thing. A
shadow hUated along on the red earth. l
looked up Ii was a huge turkey GuZzard
wheeling through the air rs nOEeieSs as the
shadows he cast.
There was something weird and gloomy in
it all. The land did not seem made for hui
man habitation. 1t seemed new, unfinished,
rs of recent date from SDine tremendous vol
caniC upheayaL
This impression quickly vanished on reach,
ing Broener'S cabin, now east into u 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, past
the middle Of the afternoon, Their, seemed To
come To men, animals and vegetation a new
food of vitality.
BrOener had allowed the mamZauita bush,
its dark mahogany stem contrasting - strong
" with its dark green leaves, to remain uncut
all about his cabin
1T screens me from observation said he,
land I find it advantageous not 10 10 seen
in all my comingS and guingS.'
After supper he proposed a trip to the Bull
Bar store Tor trading post, as many called
in. about two miles down the river. Thither
We went.
TO 20 to the store after supper is the
REGULATION with fiveslxthS of the Bull Bar
ties said Broeuer. They would consider
their day incomplete without such a visit
. IL was store, boarding hOuSc, bar, post and
expresS Office COmbiped--full of MIXERS in
their working clothes Every barrel head
was used aS "A seat; 80 were boxes, tables and
the doorsill. As We entered, the proprietor,
a small, energetic, buStling man, WAS Scold-
inc a giant IN comparison with himself
Dig llltk ~ NANNAAAH NA inv UNIV
Il wantSA0 10 know said he, that this
countcr iS.t0sell goods uu, ami not To sit on.
If YOU want to retail yourself. get a counter
of your OvaE You come up here every night
ami plank yourself On my counter as il l had
built il for an arm chair. Ii You want 10 DO
sold III Ly you on the shelf with the other
goods, and take you down when called for.
But l want you to keep your beef of my
counter"
The giant took the reproof good naturally,
and moved off rs desired
Mr.. Rankin, said another customer, are
those canned oysters of yours gOOd:'
Good replied Mr.. Rankin. "Of course
not. They're Baltimore oysters, put up rot
ten, shipped roHnd Cape Horn rotten, sold to
me in stockton rottsHy and hauled up here
by a bull tearr r0sreR Just smell Of 'em!"
and Mr.. Rankin showed the can under his
customers SGse. "a