The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1886-12-15
CHAPTER VIII
COMPACT.

"But why 1 asked, do you trust me-
almost o stranger to you, with your secretT
For this reason, replied Broener First,
because l believe can trust you; secondly, |
have long wanted 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 go,sips are running around in panta-
looms as in petticoats. need you to keep up
a show of work on my bogus claim while
am in San Francisco There / must go from
/ time TO time to get my quartz gold smelted
and assayed. Miners law requires ons 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 III that claim
don't want to seem mysterious, and Il
don't keep up clatter of work about here
l shall 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
it's all right And svhile l think, of it mind
you break no regular path going up and
IL.
pecting about in strange places on finding
any sort of trail to follow it. l think
it's the cattle instinct in man-the same
that makes sheep and cows follow each
other Men who succeed | 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
Il. l.. oI,
the fellows about here now that / fear.
But new men are arriving all the time
restless, prying, searching maybe know
ING and reasoning as | 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 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 hints and knowing
grimaces The best way to keep secret is
10 forget it yourself-tiIl it's wanted. What's
always on lnS Alluu Is very dpb W Nllh5 1Osoh
on theface Make people suspect you know
something they don't and you start EN- on
the hunt to find it out. But what in thunder
am l doingl Preaching and philosophizing
Let's GO home and start new brood Of flap
jacks for supper
Broener filed q 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 tt was huge turkey buzzard
wheeling through the air as noiseless as the
shadows he cast.
There was something weird and gloomy in
il ALL The land did not seem made for hui
man habitation II seemed new, unfinished
asss1gfekeat date from some tremendous vol
caiffc upheaval
Thisimpression quickly vanished on rea IL
iua. Broeaefss cR5iT, now cast into gIatefu
and cooling shade by the afternoon sun. The
long shadows Of the-hilis on ours lank of the
stream were rapidly stealing up the sides .:
those on the other. The direct and oppressive
outpour Of noon hegt was over, and now, past
the middle of the afternoon, there scanned to