The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-08-04

| ~ thousand stories to be
told of them and those
that have tried to wrest their riches from
| them"
"And this preface, Colonel?" meekly sug-
| gested the writer.
"Means story, of course, said the Colonel.
| who is an old forty miner and a man known
| among his compeers as integrity itself. A
| story that rivals any Haggard ever told or
| Jules Verne dreamed of. In 1871 had aban-
doued an unsuccessful search for fortune in the
! mining cam ps and begun the practice OF law.
| when one day a man named Beilew came hto
| my Office
| HE had been an old chum of mine in the
| old gold hunting days, and had known MN
| to be an unusually straightforward upright
| chap for those lawless times. but that DAY he
| told me story that made me wonder IL ne was
| a rogue with some scheme to work or the IN
| sanest man out of an asylum. lie preiaced
this story by showing me half dozen nuggets
| of gold that fairly took away my breath. Ihey
were splendid fellows, the smallest of them
| weighing at least four ounces, and, what IS
| more, they were nearly pure metal.
"' Beauties, amt they?' said Beiiew; then
| looking to see that the door was fast iocken,
| half whispered And l know where tens OF
| thousands of 'em can be found Ho searched
his pockets and produced something wrapped
| in a rag, which, being unrolled, exhibited to
-
| of beaten gold This held while he told his
| story. ,
| ".Do you remember where, close to the old
| Jessie May Mine, we found the lost river
| The stream, you know, amt never in sight,
| but, if you listen at little place torn In the
| side of the hill, you can hear the sound OF q
| river rushing over the rocks down below, and
| how you can feel the very spray oil the water
| if you hold your hand in little ways.
| "'Well, one day me and a man named
| Scroggin had climbed that hill after deer we
| were following, and when the deer was killed
| we got to quarreling over whose shot had killed
| him. All at once Scroggin struck out at me
and sent me flying down the hill. and my foot
| caught in a root just over the hole where the
| lost river was heard, and in / went.
thought I was gone, for / fell plump into the
water, and an angry stream it was, too, run.
! ming over rocks and with channel almost too
| small for it, but / only knew this from the
| bumps and thumps l got as was carried on,
| for it was as dark as Egypt.
"'Why my brains weren't knocked out
| twenty times / can't say. but after while the
| river got to a free bed and / was able to swim
| a little. / struck out for the right-hand bank.
| and pretty soon / was able to crawl out OF the
| water | rested here for while considering
| what l was to do, for / was the worst lost man
had heard of; but it did no good to sit still,
| so ! began to feel around and stumbled along
| the bank. guided by the waters murmur, un-
| til reckon i had gone nearly half mile;
| then the river seemed to plunge deeper into
| the earth and the roof of the cavern grew SO
| low could not follow it, but some distance of
| | saw a point OF light like star, and going to
| this, found it hole in the side of the mount
ain. and | crept out.
"'Well, Eve visited that cavern several
| times since, carrying torches, and I've seen
some things / amt going to tell you OF now,
hnf L N
reasons you'll see later, and, knowing / could
| depend OH you to act square with me. B., L
| look ed you up. I'm going to make your for
tune, old man. Why, Monte Cristo will be
smali-fry compared to you and me when we've
| got our treasure oHt
"We arranged to visit the cavern the follow
! ing day, and started early on horseback. We
had made some six OR seven miles when all at
once we felt the earth tremble violently, and
Bellows pony fell on his knees. But there
| was no harm done, and an earthquake Is too
common an event in this country for much to
| be made of it, so, though we felt two more
distinct shocks before we reached our destin.
| alton, little said about it.
Before we entered the cavern Bellew pro-
| duced half-a. dozen torches, some provisions, a
! little light canoe, and some other things he
! had hidden in the bushes close to the hole
where we entered. This was hardly large
enough to admit US, but we squeezed through.
and lighting our torches made our way to
| where the river entered the low rooted channel
Bellew had spoken OF. The canoe was placed
| in the water, a lantern lighted, and we got in,
but lay quite fat in the bottom of the boat, for
| il was impossible TO sit upright. A shove sent
the canoe into the middle of the stream, where
| the current caught it and sent it whrlDg
| along. There were several minutes of this
strange journeying when the roof lifted all at
| once and we sat up.
In, rl,n ct,r To ftoh
| Bellew paddled, and getting out we hauled up
| the canoe, and lighting the torches walked for
! ward among the rocks with which the floor
! of that vast cavern was lined. All at once L
found myself in the midst of city of over
| turned houses. They were not huts, but rather
pretentious structures of stone, and around
| them lay the skeletons of the people whose
dwellings they had been. Beliew gave me no
time to examine these, but led on to the larg
est building of the collection, which numbered
| several hundreds. This | knew to be tenn
| pie from the style of architecture which re-
sembled somewhat the temples of India This
| was in ruins like the rest, but was still in q
| measure upright.
eve entered, stumbling over several skele.
tons, ali with golden ornaments about their
ne0ks legs and wrists; but had no eyes for
| these, for before me lay an image on its face,
which the dim light Of the torches showed me
to be of massive gold from the top of its ugly
head to the feet. The thing must have weighed
nearly ton, and scattered about were scores
of other images, all of the same precious metal
and representing various birds and animals,
! while the largest one was that Of a man or
woman, / don't remember now which. The al
tar, which measured about four feet square, was
| of gold also, aud further inspection showed ne
| that the very walls of the temple were of tn G
| same.
at was gold, gold, gold everywhere! l was
actually dizzy at the sight, but Bellew led me
out to the ancient bed OF q stream just outside
of the city, where l saw nuggets of gold as
thick rs pebbles in brook, some of them
am telling you the solemn truth-as large as
my head. got down on my knees to examine
them. and / know them to be beyond doubt
nearly pure gold.
"'What did tell you? said Bellew. The
river that once occupied this bed washed those
down from the heart of the mountain
"'And what has become of that river?'
asked. Bellew pointed TO the ruined city and
the broken. rugged ground.
Whatever it was that swallowed up that
town-for, of course, it was never built under
ground-let the river out of its bed. Where is
it now7 Probably that was it we came by just
now.'
"'Then gold was as common to this people as
stone with us?'
"No They had plenty of it but wher
here underground, SO they did not draw from
it. 1t was left for US to reap the fruits of thai
landslide or earthquake. Now to business, OLD
fellow. OF course / could by making many
, trips have carried off the nuggets; but | need
I,at Al,