Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1890-08-16

out by tho leading saloon keeper, and
nearly died in the snow, Wash took him
up, learned his history, and sent enough
money to his family East to educate his
children. That was we'll enough, but
he told the saloon-kceper that he fought
ter be hung;" and in the present crisis
the old fellow was not idle in advising
people to lot that fool Missourian alone.
There had been some who would have
stood by Wash in different fashion,
and ''seen him through" to their last
dollar or last drop Of blood. But none
Of them were left in the old camp; they
were scattered over the Pacific Coast
from Panamint to Cassiar; some of them
lay silent under pine-tree slabs on the
hills west OF the river.
Wash's hair grew gray and thin. He
stopped lower and lower. Deep lines
were craven in his face, and his eyes be-
came fierce and terrible. Men met him
in the gulches trapping game, or down
in the streams with his fsh-nets, and
passed him by without word. Pros
pectors, climbing over the hills, heard
the sound Of his pick as he toiled in his
tunnel, and laughed him to scorn. BE
cause he found few pockets, he is bor-
ing right into the granite. Crazy as q
loon, and his wife as bad. Her relations
have done every thing to help them
offered them farm and the best kind
Of show down in the valley"
1t was an afternoon in October. The
saloon-keeper sat on the bench by his
door reading o newspaper. He heard q
noise at the head of the street; the vii
lage boys were shouting: Here comes
the crazy Missourian miner" Wash,
ragged and miserable, came into sight,
and, after q moments hesitation, spoke
to him:
Evening, Mr.. Riley"
~ can't do any thing for you"
''Mr. Riley, listen to me. hain't a
cent in the world. We've sold all our
goods and worked in the mine together
this month. Jennie's held the drill
while druv it. can't get pound Of
powder, but the holes are all set in the
face. ready. Something tells me that
this time it will touch gold. I can feel
1t just ahead. I've felt it all along;
but now it's right thar, within reach OF
one more blast. / tell you, Riley, l
know it's thar"
You're crazy, Wash"
''Riley, you've got money. Give me
one keg of powder, an I'll make you u
rich man. Tllgive you half we take out.
You don't know how I've worked this
year. I've hammered from daylight to
dark, gone hungry and slept cold, an
fell down in dead faint time and time
over. Put your hand thar!" He sliced
the saloon-keeper's hand and held it on
his breast. The man felt Wash's heart
sway several inches, as If it had torn
loose from its place, and its wild, loud
throbbing was like the beating of q
mighty engine. "Thar," said Wash,
''you see amt for long. That mines
for my wife. She's stayed with it and
with me. ought to have dropped it
and put my pride down long ago, but
now it's too late. Riley, will you let me
have the powder?"
mo"
Wash looked at his old enemy and
turned away. He had already tried
others, the store-keeper, the hotel
owner and every miner he could find.
They thought it was foolishness and
worse. There had been many things
said about that crazy Wash who mar
ried young woman and made her
work like slave in his worthless claim,
and some Of them were flung out at him
that afternoon.
~ tell you, WASH" said one, ''the in
sane asylum is the place for you, and
the boys will have to get you there and
send your wife home"
So far astray does the Judgment of
men and of communities sometimes
wander! No one in all that camp un-
derstood the proud, unyielding soul 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 drift his pick
in his hand. He had gone back to break
his own way into the treasure-house, but
his heart had burst in the midst of a
giant stroke, and he had fallen across
his own weapon. There his wife had
found him, and she, too, weak and sick
and heart-bTOken, lay in faint over his
body.
Ophir Camp woke with start to some
dim sense OF its crime. Tender hands
carried Wash ard 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