Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1890-12-01

No one in all that camp undersss--.
the proud, unyielding SOM that had set
itself to wrestle with nature and her
secret. The afternoon wore on into
night, and night into morning. and
morning. noon and afternoon built up
another day. Wash did not come back.
Some boys climbed the hill and went
into the tunnel. There lay Wash. dead.
at the further end Of the tunnel, his pick
in his hand. He had gone back to break
his own way into the treasure house, but
his leart had burst in the midst Of u
giant stroke, and he had fallen across
his own weapon. There his wife had
found him, and she, too, weak and sick
and heartbroken. lay In faint over his
body.
Ophir camp woke with start to some
dim sense of its crime. Tender hands
carried Wash and his wife ont Of the
tunnel, and did all that could be done
for the poor woman.
A dozen men went back into the tun-
mel from which they had taken the dead
man, and looked at the place where his
last faltering shock had glanced off the
flinty rock.
Boys" said one, ''I'll never forget
that told Walsh he couldn't have any
more powder, not if he died in his tun-
mel. Well set off them last blast holes
Jest as he wanted. and then wen bury
him in here where he dropped"
There was plenty of blasting powder
now to be had for the asking, and in
few minutes tho face Of the drift was
ready for the blast, the fuses set and
lighted, word had got around the camp
and every man was gathered at the
mouth Of the tunnel. A few women
were in the old cabin caring for the dy-
ing wife. A long silence followed the
lighting of the fuses, and suddenly the
dull noise of the shock and the fall Of
heavier masses of rock than usual star
tied the miners outside.
They ran into the tunnels with their
lights. The blast had opened wide
path into all irregular cavern cleaning
with gold. Above, below and on all
sides was the shining, precious metal.
The last blast for which Wash had strug-
gled so bravely had revealed a fortune.
The excited miners rushed out again
with a wild shout. A woman met them
with flushed and frightened face.
How can you make such noise?"
she said. THE poor things gone, cry
ing like "a baby for her dead man."
The miners drew close together,
ashamed and profoundly affected. AZ
ter little few Of them went back to
the tunnel and secured Wash's pickax.
which had been lying against the wall
I'VE can't bury them here, now" said
one, 1.-The mine will be worked again.
They must lie on the hillside, where all
his old friends of twenty years ago are
laid"
Wash had no relatives. His wife's
brother came up and took possession of
the claim, which the miners had protect
ed against all intruders In few weeks
it became generally understood in the
region that the wealth of the blue Jul
niata's last and greatest pocket" was esti-
mated by conservative miners at a quar-
ter of million.
But from the day that Wash fell dead
in his tunnel blight seemed to fall on
the little camp of Ophir. Mine after
mine gave out; miner after miner moved
away. A land slide swept off the cabin
where Wash had lived, and though, as
have said, the blue Juniata" yielded all
that was expected, and even more, and
founded one Of the great Pacific coast
fortunes, none Of its treasures brought
happiness to those who worked it. To-
day the camp is deserted and its very
name memory. Howard Shinn
in Detroit News.