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

COMPACT.
"But why" 1 asked ''do You trust me,
almost stranger to you, with your secrete'
''For this reason" replied Broener. First,
because believe l can trust you; secondly, l
have long wanted a companion and assistant
in one and the same person. The honest ones
among the Bull Bar crowd will 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. I need you to keep up
a show Of work on my bogus claim while l
am in San Francisco. There must so 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 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 if l
don't keep up clatter of work about here
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 l notice gen
orally 60 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
But new men are arriving all the time
restless prying, searching-maybe know
ing and reasoning as I have done on this
matter, and if their eyes fall on 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 all up
with HE, for there's no law now to regulate
that description Of claims except the law Of
might Now do you see how much l need
you. You're quiet, shy and not talkative
Those qualities are all helps to me. A talk
ative man, with this secret inside of him,
couldn't help in some way letting it out. He'd
kill himself at last with hint, and knowing
grilnaces The best way to keep a secret is
to forget it yourself-tili 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 'em on
the hunt to find it out. But what in thunder
am doing! Preaching and philosophizing.
Let's 60 home and start q new brood of flap
jacks for supper"
l,l 80 &l,o
quartz as he could conveniently carry, and
we took our way homeward. Ascending far
out 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 chapparal, which in places, as
thrown in shadows, was almost black. There
was no sight nor sound of living thing A
shadow floated along on the red earth. l
looked up. 1t was a huge turkey buzzard
wheeling through the air US noiseless 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,
as of recent date from some tremendous vol
canic upheaval
This impression quickly vanished on reach
ing BroenerS cabin, now cast into grateful
and cooling shade by the afternoon SUM- The
long shadows of the hills on our bank of the
stream were rapidly stealing up the sides of
those Oh the other. The direct and oppressive
outpour of noon heat was over and now, past
the middle of the afternoon, there seemed to
| come to men, animals and vegetation new
food of vitality.
Broener had allowed the manzanita BUSH
its dark mahogany stem contrasting so strong
" with its dark green leaves, to remain uncut
all about his cabin.
1T screens me from observation" said be-
land find it advantageous not to be seen
in all my comings and goings"
After supper he proposed trip to the Bull
Bar store Tor trading post, as many called
it,, about two miles down the river. Thithel
we went
ITO 60 to the store after supper is the
regulation with five-sixths of the Bull Bar.
ties" said Broener. They would consider
their day incomplete without such a visit"
1t was store, boarding house, bar, post and
express office conlbined-full of miners in
their working clothes. Every barrel head
was used as seat; so were boxes, tables and
the doorsill As we entered, the proprietor,
small, energetic, bustling man, was scold'
inr giant in comparison with himself
Big Dick'-for sitting on the counter.
II want YOU to know" said he, that thil
counter is to sell goods on, and not to sit on.
If you want to retail yourself, get a countes
of your own. You come up here every night
and plank yourself on my counter as if had
built it for an arm chair. If you want to be
sold I'll lay yo, on the shelf with the othei
goods and take you down when called for.
But / want you to keep your beef off my
counter"
The giant took the reproof good naturedly,
and moved off as 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 round Cape Horn rotten sold to
me in Stockton rotten, and hauled up here
by bull team rotten. Just smell of 'emn'
and Mr.. Rankin showed the can under his
customers nose
| UI,Il fol 10 n CON cai6 tpa miner