Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-04-10
THE BANK OF CALIFORNIA
BY PRENTICE MILFORD.

BY PRENTICE MILFORD.
tes''''s11FD 81 7u ss. 1snn0H. ALI a''H'' az
CHAPTER VIII.
CONTACT.
"But Why" I asked, "do you trust me-,
almost a stranger to you, with your secretF'
''For this reason, y replied Broener. ''Filst,
because l 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, I think quite as
many gossips are running around In panta-
looms as in petticoata Ineed you to keep up
a show Of work on my bogus claim while l
am in San Francisco. There I 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 h%ereabouts you are
to be my partner in that claim. l
don't want to seem mysterious, and II !
uOu Y hCcP up q S1AVVoI VI WOlh eaOOuV uSAO
I shall be, through leaving SO often and
you to slide up from time to time to our
real claim on the mountain and see that
it's all right. And while I 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 q trail to follow it. I think
it's the cattle instinct in mantle same
that makes sheep and cows follow each
other. Men who succeed I 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 I 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 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 all up
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 I need
yous You're quiet, shy and not laxative.
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
grimaces. The best way to keep a secret Is
to forget it yourself-tl 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 I doings Preaching and philosophizing.
Let's go home and start a new brood of flap
jacks for supper"
Broener filled a sack with as much of the
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 foated along on the red earth. ]
looked up. It was a huge turkey buzzard
wheeling through the air as ~noiseless as the
shadows he cast.
There was something weird and gloomy il
it all. The land did not seem made for hu
man h%abitation. It 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. Tn
long shadows Of the hills on on' bank of tn
stream were rapidly stealing up the sides o
those on the other. The direct and oppressiv
outpour of noon heat was over, and now, pas
the middle Of the afternoon, there seemed tt
come to men, animals and vegetation a nev
food of vitality.
Broener had allowed the manzanita bush
its dark mahogany stem contrasting so strong
" with its dark green leaves, foreman uncu
all about his cabin.
ut screens me from observation" said he
'sand l find it advantageous not to DO see
IN all my comings and goings."
After supper he proposed a trip to the Bull
Bar store Tor trading post, as many Gale
il, about two miles down the river. Thithe
we went.
40 go to the store after supper is til
regulation with fve-sixths of the Bull Ba,
ites,n said Broener. ''They would conside
their day incomplete without such a VISIT
1t was store, boarding house, bar, post an
express office combined-full of miners j
their working clothes. Every barrel hea
was used as a seat; 50 were boxes, tables ON
the doorsill. As we entered, the %proprieto,
small, energetic, bustling man, was scolt
ing a giant in comparison with himself
"Big Dick"-for sitting on the counter.
II want you to know" said he, that tn
counter is to sell goods on, and not to sit OF
If you want to retail yourself, get a countt
of your OWL. You come up here every nigt
and plank yourself on my counter as If I ha
built it for an arm chair. II you want to /
sold I'll Law YOU on the shelf with the otat
goods, and take you down when called fol
But I want you to keep your beef Off III
counter"
The giant took the reproof good naturedl,
and moved off as desired.
NJ Rankin" said another customer, "al
those canned oysters of yours goody'
Good" replied Mr.. Rankin. ''Of cour
not. They're Baltimore oysters, put up 70
ten, shipped round Cape Horn rotten, sold
me in Stockton rotten, and hauled up hel
by a bull team rotten. Just smell OF 'em
and Mr.. Rankin showed tbs can under b
customers nose.
@ ! !
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