The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1891-03-27

afternoon wore on into night and night
into morning, and morning, noon and alter
noon built up another day. Wash did not
came 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 heart
had burst in the midst of giant stroke, and
he had fallen across his own weapon. There
his wife had found him, and she, too, weak
and sick and heart broken, lay in a faint over
his body.
Ophir camp woke with a start to some 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 tunnel
from which they had taken the dead man,
and looked at the place where his last falter
ing shock had glanced off the flinty rock.
Boys" said one, "l'll never forget that
told Wash he couldn't have any more pow
der not if he died in his tunnel. 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 min
utes the face of the drift was ready for the
blast, the fuses set and lighted, word had
gone 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
dying wife. A long silence followed the
lighting of the fuses, and suddenly the dull
noise OF the shock and fall OF heavier
masses of rock than usual startled the miners
outside
They ran into the tunnels with their lights
The blast bad opened a wide path into an
irregular cavern cleaning with gold. Above,
below and on all sides was the shining, pre-.
cious metal. The last blast for which Wash
had struggled so bravely had revealed for
tune. The excited miners rushed out again
with wild shout. A woman met them with
flushed and frightened face.
slow can you make such a noise 7" she
said. "The poor things gone, crying like
baby for her dead man."
The miners drew close together, ashamed
and profoundly affected After 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
"ths mine will be worked again. They must
lie on the hillside, where all his old frltnds 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 protected against all
intruders. In few weeks it became gener-
ally understood in the region that The wealth
of the "Blue Juniata's last and greatest
pocket" was estimated by conservative
miners at quarter of million.
But from theday 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 l have said, the "Blue Junia-
ia" 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
mlmory.-Detroit Neaos.