Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-08-21

year. I've hammered ffom daylight
TO dark, gone hungry and slept cold,
an fell down In dead faint time aud
time over. Put your hand thar!n He
seized the saloon-keeper's hand and
held it on his breast. The man felt
Wash's heart sway several inches, as III
1t had torn loose from its place, and its
wild, loud throbbing was like the beat
ing Of a mighty engine. ''Thar," said
Wash, "you see amt for long. That
mines for my wife. She stayed with 1t
and with me. l ought to have dropped
1t and put my pride down long ago, but
now it's too late. Riley, will you let
me have the POWDER"
"No.u
Wash looked at his old enemy and
turned away.
No one In all that camp understood
the proud, unyielding soul that had set
itself to wrestle with nature and her se-
cret. 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 end of the drift, his pick in his
hand. He had gone back to break his
own way into the treasury house, but
his heart had burst in the midst of o
giant stroke, and he had fallen across
his own weapon. There his wife had
found him, and she, too, weak and sick
and broken-hearted, lay in faint over
his body.
Ophir Camp woke with a start to a
dim sense of its crime. Tender hands
carried Wash and his wife out 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 stroke had glanced on the
fiintv rock.
"Boys,n said one, "pH never forget
that told Wash ne 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 we'll bury
him in here where he dropped"
There was plenty of blasting powder
now to be had for the asking. and in
few minutes more the face of the drift
was ready for the blast, the fires 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, end suddenly the
dull nose of the shock and the fall of
heavier masses of rock than usual start
led the miners outside.
They ran into the tunnel with their
lights. The blast had opened wide
path into an irregular cavern, cleaning
with gold. Above, below and 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 wild shout. A woman met them
with a flushed and frightened face.
"How can you make such q noisem.
she said. "The poor things gone, cry
ing like baby for her dead man."
The miners drew close together,
and profoundly affected. At
ter little, a few of them went back to
the tunnel, and secured Wash's pick
ak, which had been left leaning against
the wall.
1--WE can't bury them here now,"
SblO Ouci LLl0 Hlu0 Will U0 worked
again. They must lie on the hillside,
where all his 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 pro.
tected against all intruders. In a few
weeks it became generally understood
in the region that the wealth of the
"Blue Juniata's last and greatest pock-
was estimated by conservative miners
at a quarter of a million.
But from the day that Wash fell in
his tunnel, blight seemed to fall on
the little camp at Ophir. Mine after |
mine gave out; miner after miner NOV
ed away. A landslide swept off the
cabin where Wash lived, and though
as I 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 treas
ures brought happiness to those who
worked it. To-day the camp is desert
ed, and its very name memory.