San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-15


BILE hill of difficulty, had at last been dragged
| up by the mules, inspired by the outpouring1
that the gentleman occupying the middle seat
| Qeftl broke the silence. We knew him as
| Professor Blood, 1.-THE hull owner Of the
| Blackeye mine of Greenwood and several
others" 1t was at the close of Tommy's ex-
hortation, l say, which began softly and
slowly, then gradually increased in volume,
| speed and power, until the flow was simply
! overwhelming, that the professor" remarked
| pleasantly:
Tommy seems to swear tolably easy, Pm
| thinkin' It's a grxlt gift; wonderful what
twill do sometimes. When l was a-teamin'
| it up TO Leadville | would bet willin' could
cuss dead mule up a 600 foot grade, with a
| load, and all by the parts o speech. It's just
like anythin' else, though, takes practice.
Those was great days" he went on with
retrospective sigh, great days. We was
gettin' twenty and thirty cents pound fur
| stuff, an maxim Slathers o money; an losin'
it too, he added, with laugh. 81 remem-
Der comm down over the divide one night
alone, with three thousan' dollars in my
| pocket when a d road agent held me up
| an cleaned me out l was pretty blamed
mad, but had to ante"
I'D like to know" said the doctor, show
one or two men can stop and rob dozen, all
well armed 1t looks as if they had no nerve.
don't think I'd stand it."
The Judge whstled softly at this remark;
the major smiled and made pretense of
| wiping the window with his coat sleeve and
| looking out; the colonel expectorated mourn
| fully The professor alone was calm.
Partner" said he looking the doctor in
the eye, and tapping him gently on the knee
as he spoke, twas you ever held up"
The doctor shook his head.
81 thought likely" said the professor, sig
nificantly. "Just look here, when you are
stopped you ante quietly and perlitely. It's
runnin' too much Of a risk to object. If any
man is lookin' fur chance to climb the
| golden stairs, through barin' of his buzzum
| for his fellow creatures-without compensa-
tion-let him. 1t amt in my line, I'm pretty
sure, an so say, if ever you're held up jest
! fork without any back talk-its really the
cheapest, and long way the safest"
These sentiments seemed to meet with uni
versal approval from the other occupants Of
the coach, and the doctor, quite crushed with
the weight of opinion against him, relapsed
into silence.
After this, conversation became desultory.
| Now and then passenger would volunteer
remark which sometimes elected a reply
and sometimes did not, Often, as the road
| led up some steep incline, we would get out
| and walk to restore, by exercise, the circula-
| ton in our benumb~d limbs. Twice the
| coach stopped at relay stations, whore fresh
mules were harnessed ia the place Of the tired
| ont animals. The stations were nothing more
| than rough log stables, with accommodations
for tbs men who fed and cared for the mules
The snow had bsen falling al The afternoon
IN fine fakes, and had spread over the earth
thin white cover that partially hid the
roughness OF the meuntains and whttened the
| light that came through the clouds, into which
we sometimes drove The road was becom.
| ing very heavy and our progress slow, when,
| to our relief, the coach, about O'Clock, en-
tered a small park OF a few hundred acres
| and pulled UP in front Of Sampsons-twelve
| miles from Leadville While fresh mules
were being harnessed we alighted, and
stepped into the room that served as bar,
office, parlor and reading room, for Samp-
| sons was hotel as well as relay station
The establishment was owned and managed
| by Mr. Sampson and his wife Almiry, or, to
| put it in another way SIMPSONS and Samp-
| son himself were controlled by Almiry. A
modern Delilah she, who, when she married
| Sampson, had, speaking figuratively, clipped
| his locks and left him deprived Of all am
| bition. There was a rumor current that
| Sampson drank, a rumor not altogether with
| out foundation, since no one had ever seen
| him entirely sober. His sole duty was to tend
| bar and when not occupied in nlnistering to
| the liquid wants of others he was looking
qfJer himself There was but one beverage
| 5old at Sampson s-whisky-though there
| hung upon the wall, back Of the rough bar,
an Illuminated card setting forth in fly
| Specked characters the superior merits Of
| Halls Jamaica ginger. But as for the ginger,
| that was not TO be had Nor were there any
indications, beyond dusty Autographs nailed
askew to the wooden partitions, that soda
water, settler and Mumm's extra dry were
prOcurable on demand. And so it was fortu-
nate that the systems of those passengers who
needed stimulation craved whisky only, for
that was positively all there was. On the
sticky bar stood a half dozen thick, dirty
glasses, side by side with the long necked
bottle half filled with an amber fluid.
We had not noticed at first, in the dim
| light of the room, the figure Of a woman, clad
| in deep black and wearing a heavy veil
| drawn over her face. She sat in dark cor
| ner and seemed to shrink from observation
But when Tommy entered after looking to
his cattle, and had fortified his nerves with
four fingers of the ''reg'lar thing, swallowed
| without a murmur, AlIniry took him aside
and engaged him in earnest conversation,
and her gestures then, for the first time, di-
rected our attention to the woman.
Our halt was necessarily short, and we
were soon back in the coach; the mules had
been changed, and we were ready to start.