The record-union., 1891-10-31
THE EAST DRIFT.

After years of varying fortunes in other
mining camps, returned to the Com
stock and got work in the Malta. Com
pared with the old lurid days Virgins
City seemed almost deserted. It made
me sad to see so many abandoned houses
The very plank walks looked melancholy
their hard, resinous knots protrudine
above the softer surface Where were the
thousands whose restless feet had worn
them? A few old pioneer polyglot liars
still loitered around the sunny corners
to lazy to work and too poor or too list
less to get away, like disabled birds
whose companions have migrated.
My fellow-workman was known as
Dagger Joe." Unlike the other boys,
he was never seen with pistol. His
belt always carried murderous-looking
knife, with double-edged spiral blade,
whose buckhorn handle contained nine
suggestive notches-about which Joe was
persistently silent. One night he told me
he took the knife from greaser who
died in the act of robbing Joe's sluice-
boxes in California. His cruel mouth
grlnned in reminiscent sort of a way, as
If he were tasting pleasant memories.
From desultory remarks / inferred
that he had followed the pioneer wave of
adventurers from camp TO camp, and by
accident, like myself, had stranded there,
with fortune-to get.
Wetwo were the night shift in the east
drift from the main adit, below the Sutro
tunnel level, about 800 feet from the
shaft, beyond which all the other men
worked.
The east drift seemed hopeless pros
CToi n Of 20 n ~ Svic nf no
intendent the directors insisted upon it's
continuance.
One night Joe told me he overheard the
superintendent talking TO the President,
who had just secretly driven over from
Carson, and had spent several hours in
the mine.
a big deal was pending. The stock was
at bedrock and was to be doomed out of
sight.
We had no money, but early informa-
ton judiciously used is sometimes a
surer bait to catch the wary trout, For
tune, than whole pot of gold.
exchanged our early information for
options on stock, which we sold out just
as the high tide was turning. We made
possibilities of more early information
decided us TO work on as if we had no
snug little bank account. We had nearly
landed the trout, Fortune, but someone
else was fated TO eat it. one morning
when we came out to the mine we
brought newspaper, as usual, to note
the state of the market and see how GER
tain little flyers were flying. We were
simply paralyZed to learn that the Cashier
of our bank, unlike the leopard, had
changed his spots, and we were merely
day laborers again. Joe'S lace was a
picture. The Cashier had better have
been where Dante visited, without even
q harpy's claws tor defense, than to have
stood before Joe at that moment. Joe
was so stingy that he never drank except
at another's expense. But that day he
got wildly, then sottishly drunk. That
night, for the first time, went to the east
drift alone.
Were you ever down in a deep mine
alone? 1t is so still there. At night, on
the mountain top, you see the stars in the
clouds and hear the song of the winds.
In the blacklist forest you know the trees,
at least, are living, for their restless
leaves speak to you. But down in an old
mine, whose dark avenues stretch out
into unknown darkness, the grim silence
hurts you, oVerpoWefs you, and you
want to cry out to hear the sound of q liV-
ing voice. You grope along, feeling that
each step may take you out into black
possibilities, beyond the narrow circle OF
light thrown by your fiickering candle.
What If your candle should go QUIT Your
hand convulsiyely grabs for your match
box, and if by sad chance you have left
it, the tension on your nerves is so ter
rible that you are almost tempted to blow
out your own candle to get relief by fac
ing reality of horror. Then your heart
chokes you as the hollow sound of your
step upon the boards over some aban-
doned winze wakes the dead echoes,
which seem TO your distorted fancy to be
the low growlings of gnomes you have
disturbed. You need not blush for
shame. Braver men than you have been
cowed by Nature in her somber moods.
/ worked harder for being alone. Joe
and l used to soldier" a little. He
would smoke while / spun yarns He
sometimes laughed with his beady black
eyes. never knew his mouth to achieve
anything but a sardonic, irregular grin.
After setting off a blast to make room
for square set of timbers in a rock
which appeared in the bottom of the
drift, waited for the smoke to partly
clear away and then leisurely went
through the murky, nitrogenous smell
back to my work. The blast had done
more than I expected. In the lower
right hand corner, furthest from the
shaft, was uncovered the apex of body
of rich sulphurets. so dear to the miners s
heart and so pregnant with dazzling pos
sibilities. / held "a piece in my hand and
wished it all were mine. Why not? I
found it. / alone knew of it. My own
fortune had just been snatched away by
the faithless man l trusted. / remem-
bered a text in my boyish copy book,
MISREPRESENTATION is the first law of ma
ture." The words seemed branded
anew on my memory. and a
new meaning dawned upon me. [
chuckled to myself because Dag
ger Joe was drunk. Ny mind was
fI1n of oil Ixyhi
was startled by sound. / looked up and
into the cleaning eyes of Dagger Joe,
drunk enough to be ugly, but too good a
miner not to realize the soul-warping sit
nation. In an instant we read each 9TH
er's greedy thoughts. AS he swiftly drew
his knife the dim light flashing
on its cruel blade made me shudder
I struck him blow with my pick
which would have felled an OK. His right
arm dropped useless at his side, and the
knife flew against the wall as he sprang
upon me and bore me to the ground un-
hurt. He was much more than match
for me. AS it was, l strained every nerve,
and almost despaired before / rolled him
over and got my knee upon his unin-
iured arm. Quickly I grabbed the knife.
and its screw-like blade sought his heart
again and again. Can l ever forget his
face and eyes? Exhausted as | was,
quickly dragged his body to the old
Wine, tore aside the boards and slid the
CHASTITY thing out of sight. My memory
still echoes to heavy, bounding sounds,
and the faint splashes as it plunged into
the Shiny water hundred feet below
Replacing the plank and dirt, 1 rolled my
wheelbarrow over it many times, then
nervously set in the timbers which COW
cred the exposed ore. And my two
secrets were safe in the heart of the Malta
mine.
1t was hard to work out my time that
night 1t was not easy to recross that old
winze after my blood had cooled. l went
fcnn