Nevada County picayune., 1890-04-02
THE HILLSIDE POCKET.

morning when Chloride Jack came up out of the mine and called Us in- to the cabin. My brother and l knew that something unusual had happened, or the old miner never would have climbed the long shaft 1 ladder before noon. He led the way into the cabin, and poured upon the table the contents of heavy gunny- sack.
 Boys" he said. i've have struck it rich at last, -
 Apparently, we had struck it rich at last. There it lay on the table, fifty or more irregular chuncks of red rotten" quartz, and all through it great strings and Jumps of dark yellow gold
 We could scarcely believe our eyes, bat Jack was quick to explain.
 You see, l thought from what Antonio said last night about that little stringer of ore he's been follow ing up, that it was a-going to do something big for us before long, and so this morning l set Antone to work in the east drift, and 1 just put a drill into the stringer myself. Before I'd gone foot she broke right through into the soft rock, and the first charge of powder laid open the prettiest little pocket you ever saw. But it wasn't nothing but a pocket :" he added, sorrowfully. That there on the table is all the gold we'll ever get out of it. 1 cleaned that up in less than fifteen minutes, and then l worked two hours longer without seeing so much as color" What did we care if it was only a pocket? In the mass of quartz lying before Us there was at least three thousand dollars; and even if there was no more gold in that particular spot, there was reason to believe that mine which had one pocket would have others.
 was only eighteen years old, and had come to Arizona but lately. My brother, a mining engineer, had been working the Hillside mine for several years. It had paid very well, and he had gradually reduced the force of men until there were left only Chloride Jack, who was the foreman and an "old-limcr' m this western country, and the two Mexlcans, An tonic and Chono.
 Only the day before we had talked of shutting down the mine perma- nently. Now, there on the table lay hope and encouragement. We laughed, whistled and sang. We were almost angry with Jack because he took the matter so coolly.
 When the Mexicans came up at noon, we showed the find" to them. They had seen it once by candle light in the mine. As they looked eagerly at the gold, they congratu- lated "the most fortunate senors."
 But when dinner was over, we sud denly noticed that the MeXicans had not gone back to work in the mine, but were talking eXcidedly together on the other side of the shaft When Jack went out to ask the reason, they muttered something about mo worka on a fiesta day" and moved away.
 We began to recognize the gravity of the situation. In the cabin was three thousand dollars almost as pure as bullion. The mine was twenty five miles from Antelope, the nearest town by the road across Antelope desert, with not house of any kind until within sight of the town. We had our horses, It is true, but the Mexicans had theirs. The horses were all feeding now on the mesa ln sight of the cabin.
 We had arms, but so had they. The borders of Mexico was less than hundred miles away. The MeXl- cans had worked for us and lived with us for more than year. They were good workers, and always cour- teous; but now, with three thousand dollars in the cabin could we trust them;
 Their unwillingness to work this afternoon was certainly suspicious.
 As my brother and l began to per ceive that it might be necessary to defend the gold with our lives, we almost wished that we had never ...o,, ,ha norket ar even the mine.