The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-11-21

"No," said the lieutenant
81 was up in this section couple of
years age continued the passenger, "and
| kinder thought | didn't rec'lect your
face It's fine country up yere, but it
amt as fine country as some I've seen.
Was you ever up around Sin-e-ah-qua-
teen ~
"No, the lieutenant had never been to
Sin-e-ah-qua-teen.
'Well, sir" continued the passenger,
enthusiastically, "that's fine country,
and mighty curious one, too; the curious
est ever seen. Me an my pardner was
in there one summer and found inions as
big as my two fists, and the next day,
when we struck up along the Pend Oreille,
we got into seven feet of snow. When we
got down into KoOtenal, along Pack River
they was taking out heap of gold. Then
We struck ST. Marys river, aud, gentle,
men l never did see such a place for
fish. All them rivers rise in lakes and |
was told by an old Hudson Bay man, that
had been with the company nigh on to
forty year, that they never had found no
bottom to the lakes And fish Whew
throwed in a fly and | could see hun
dreds of fish, four and five pounds big
Just race for it. Me and my pardner stay
ed there week and had a right pleasant
time, ouly for little talk that started and
ended up in some right smart shooting.
Six fellows got killed and lot more wound
ed. They was gamblers mostly, and they
made it up to 90 out six agin six, at ten
PAGES, with their revolvers. They didn't
keer noways. I laid off in the bush and
watched them. They started out as quiet
as I'd go out to cut rails, and stood up as
straight as so many snipe. Them fellows
had heaps of sand-I didn't see meier a
pistol barrel shake. could tell by their
physiogs that there was woman at the bot
tom Of it. There was some women along
with the outfit, and | says to one of them
afterward, says [ We've got to bury
these yere dead men. 1t seems sort o
rough that so many healthy fellows should
90 under of a sudden, now, don't it p And
she says, Yes; women makes a power of
trouble sometimes And I'm burned if
she warn fright. Tho I'll agree that there
are times when womens powerful handy
to have around. You don't happen to be
married, do you?''
"No," said the lieutenant, beginning to
be amused and entertained by his loqua-
cious companion, 'I'm not married.
The stage had commenced to ascend the
grade on the other side of Stony Creek.
The road wound up through a canon, or
gulch, in the bottom of which was the dry
bed of a winter torrent. 1t was long,
tedious pull to the top ofthe mesa, and the
horses had to take their time to it. Not
withstanding that thin line of light on
the brow of a distant mountain signalled
that the moon had risen, it was very dark
in the canon; so dark, that although the
lieutenant kept peering ahead of the horses,
he could not see but little more than
bend of the winding road family defined by
the denser obscurity on each side of it.
The passenger, himself, Notwithstanding his
steady flow of talk, seemed affected by the
surrounding gloom, and maintained an
alert gaze upon the side of the road.
'sYou see," he continued, ~ had wife
myself once, so | know something about
women. I picked her up in Frisco, and
Just about six months after l lost S35, 900
in the Frazer River excitement. Then |
come up yere, and laid out ranch on Mud
River But my wife, she got sick and [
spent all the money | had left in taking
her down agin, and in doctering. Well,
sir, when she died, and [ came back yere
with the little fellows, | found my ranch
gone to the devil Six inches of snow on
the ground, and the little fellows barefoot,
and not dollar in my pocket, and nothing
to eat l was blue. | tell you, pard, if
ever man were blue, | was that man. |
just TUX off my hat and throwed it on the
ground, and looked all around. But |
didn't thrown up the sponge. L TUX to
to splitting rails, and inside of a month |
soldm to the Guv' 'ment at the Sahatlin
Agency, and cleaned up hundred dollars.
I'm doin tol'able well now. the country
round my ways gittin' settled up. Pears
like Oregon's spittin' all her webfeet into
that section. got my eye on some o
these yere immigrants, and I'll pick up
another wife some day, young un about
sixteen, that | kin larn. I'm purity good Oh
the physiog. | don't want no widows,
they're larnt all ready to yer hand, but they
know too damned much"
The lieutenant laughed, and spoke to his
horses which were showing restive disin-
clination to proceed They were almost
at the top of the grade now. A clump OF
scrub-oaks at the head of the canon was in
sight The shadows here were very dense
by contrast with the moonlight, which lay
in the open beyond 1t was at these shad-
ows that the horses were pricking their
ears. The lieutenant cracked his whip
over the unruly animals but as he did So
he looked sharply in the direction of the
oaks. Was not something moving there
Or was it the moonlight shadows playing
their usual tricks on highly strung nervesi
Then he remembered that there was q
spring under those oaks, and that cattle