Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1888-04-28

luccr between US to obsculate the feathers
the truth, guess She's dbout worked outp
81 gasped; the fellow ei1rontery took II
breath out of me. On, five minutes before
lie had been swearing = oil his god5--aud
they appeared to be L. 7erous ard mixed
tha5 there were half Len fortunes left
the elaim and that he 'u5 only giving it
bee use he was downri ut weary of shove.
ing the gold out
"'Don't look SO ve;,ed, stranger went O.
my tor1nentor, perhaps there is some shi2o
in the Old Girl yet; any vay you are q down
right good fellow, you are; therefore 30;
| wi.l guess, have q real Al, Old jam, plate
| glass opportunity of working on the feeling
Of Fortune. Any way it will bring the
nus cle up on your arm, for the STUFF is un-
Common stiff, and what is more, you viii in
the course of a year earn sight more than
$4,000 in value of experience
Sand he went just in time, for in another
minute l should have gone for him, and
saw his face no more.
"Well l set to work on the old claim with
my boy Harry and half a dozen kafrs to
help me, which, seeing that 1 had put nearly
all my worldly wealth into it, was the least
l could do. And we worked, my word we
did work-early and late we went at it--but
never a bit of gold did we see; no, not even
nugget large enough to make a scarf pin
out of. The American gentleman had Sc
cured it all and left US the sweepings.
For three months this went on, till at
last paid away all, or very near ALL that
was left of our little capital in wages and
food for the kaiirs and ourselves. When l
tell you that Bocr meal was sometimes as
high as G4 bag, you will understand that
1t did not take long to run through our bank
ing account.
'At last the crisis came On Saturday
night l had paid the men as usual, and
bought mlid of mealie meal at Cos. for
them to fill themselves with, and then | went
with my boy Harry and sat on the edge of
the great hole that we had dug in the hill
side, and which we had in bitter mociery
named Eldorado. There we sat in the moon
light with our feet hanging over the edge of
the claim, and were melancholy enough for
anything. Presently pulled out my purse
and emptied its contents into my hand.
There was half sovereign, two florins, nine
pence in silver, no coppers-for copper prac-
Ecally does not circulate in South Africa
which is one of the things that make living
10 dear therein all exactly fourteen and
ainepence
"'There, Harry my boyr said, that is
the sum total of our worldly wealth; that
hole has swallowed all the rest
"'By George said Master Harry, 4 say,
father, you and I shall have to let ourselves
out to work with the Kafirs and live on
nlealic pap and he staggered at his unpleas-
ant little joke
"But was in no mood for Joking, for it is
not a merry thing to dig like anything for
months and be completely ruined in the pro
eess, especially if you happen to dislike dig
ging, and consequently l resented Harrys
Gghtheartedness.
"'Be quiet, boyr said, raising my hand
as though to give him a cuff, with the result
that the half sovereign slipped out of it and
fell into the gull below,
"'Oh, bother said l, it's gone
"'There, dad said Harry, that's what
comes of letting your angry passions rise;
now we are down to four and nine
II made no answer to these words of wis
nom, but scrambled down the deep sides OF
the claim, followed by Harry, to hunt for
my little all Well, W. hun ed and we hunt
ed, but the moonIgI-+ Is an uncertain thing
to look for half soverclS-ls b., and there was
some loose soil about 1t, for the ha1lrs had
knocked off working at the very spot
couple of hours before. | took pick and
raked away the clods of earth with it, IN the
hope of finding the coin but all in vain AT
last, in sheer annoyance, | struck the sharp
pickax down into the soil, which was of
very hard nature. To my astonishment 1t
sunk in right up to the heft
"'Why, Harry said, this ground must
have been disturbedn
az don't think 80, father he answered,
/ Il TO
out the soil with his hands. 'Ohn he said
presently, it's only some old stones; the pick
has gone down between them. LookP And
be began to pull at one of the stones.
" i say, dad he said presently, almost III
a whisper, it's precious heavy; feel it, and
he rose and gave me round, browaish lump
about the size of very large apple, which
ne was holding in both his hands took it
curiously and held it up to the light 1t was
very heavy The moonlight fell upon its
rough and filth encrusted surface, and as l
looked curious little thrills of excitement
began to pass through me- But could not
be sure.
"'Give me your knife Harry said.
"He did so; and resting the brown stone
on my knee | scratched at its surface Great
heavens, 1t was soft!
"Another second and the secret was out;
we had found a great nugget of pure gold,
four pounds of it or more It's gold, lad,' l
said, it's gold, lad, or I'm Dutchman'
Harry, with his eyes starting out Of Lis
mead, glared down at the long cleaning yel-
low scratch that l had made upon the virgin
metal, and then burst out into yell upon ye4l
OF exultation, that went ringing away across
the silent claims like the shrieks of somebody
being murdered.
Z" Be quiet l said, do you want every
thief on the field after youP
Scarcely were the words out of my mouth
when heard stealthy footstep approach
ing. promptly put the big nugget down
and sat on it, and uncommonly hard it was,
and as did so l saw Il lean, dark face pokoG
over the edge Of the claim and pair of
beady eyes searching US out | knew the
face 1t belonged to man of very bad char
acter known as Handspike Tom, who had,
understood, been SO named at the diamond
fields because he had murdered his mate with
! handspike He was now, no doubt, prowl-
ing about like human hyena to see what he
! sfa