Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-20

WASH { q hoattlly looklnsy place 10 Try the
'follow-my-leai der dodge, so Ned nosed
about for a better. After awhile he
came upon what looked to be an old
trail, and he followed it down into the
canyon, where he found the broncho,
with his baggage smashed up, but other
wise all right. Tough little beasts.
bronchos.
"Half way o the canyon there was an
open space, with trees like little park,
pines and redwoods. and near the cen
ter there was deep. snow fed pool.
Against the wall of the cliff at one side
was rough cabin built of redwood
slabs, and inside of it. at the back, was
the mouth of the Prairie Dog mine"
The speaker paused and filled his pipe,
as though he had nothing more to say
on the subject A silence fell, during
which the soun Is OF the street stole into
the room. the roll of vehicles. the stir
and hustle of traffic and the voices of
the street gami Is quarreling in the gut
ter
What became of the leper?" 1t was
the Texans voice that put the question.
There the story grows misty. Nobody
knew anything about the leper until af-
ter the find, except a few trappers and
Indians. Some said he was an Apache
and others that he was Mexican priest
Nobody knows FOR certain what he was.
except perhaps Ned Anthony, and he
won't talk about it. The leper was
dead, he told them ALL and buried under
redwood tree close by the pool. He'd
made the grave himself. and pat the
poor wretch in it; uncommon kind Of
Ned, say, for whether leprosy is catch
ing or not, its a damned unpleasant
thing to hand e. Some fellows that
wanted to upset Ned's claim to the find
started the cry of foul play, in hopes
that the BOYS would take it up and
| lynch him. but Ned soon snuffed that
out. He just marched the whole gang
! out to the grave and laid his hand on il
and swore by the Lord that made him
| that the leper h; i had nothing but kind.
ness at his han ds. and then he told the
| fellows that if they doubted his word
they could open the grave and satisfy
| themselves"
Did they"
LORD love y1a. no." cried the miner
in surprise. "Cf course they didn't!
Who do You rec, 10 was going to monkey
with a corpse I such a corpse! Why,
| they set fire to e.. hut and burned it to
| the ground bcf,ra they'd been in the
canyon two day They didn't banker
after going in ;ad out to their work
| through it all d long; the thought OF
| the leper sorter : If awaywith the stout
| est Of EN- whcl yer the sun quit the
gulch: twasn't Cynforting to their IN
nards. Nobody cared Il damn about the
poor devil anyway, beyond wiping all
sign of him off the face Of the earth.
The mine was there, and the ore was
there-rich, too, and in good bulk. That
was the big interest. Ned made a lump
ing good thing ont of that prairie dog
hole of his'n. He PANIED out in the
millions"
This appeared % exhaust the subject
for most of the listeners. who began
moving away and talking of other mat
tiers. Not so the Texan; he had emptied
the vessel of its contents, and now he
proceeded to inspect the label for the
makers name. He wished to discover
what country, stare or territory stood in
loco PARENTS to this man of gold.
Here the Vir%iuian took up the test.
mony. "Youll hardly believe it." he
said amusedly: Il didn't myself at first
although the fellow that told me had il
from Anthony's own lips. The Old
Dominion claims him; he is Virginian
This kind of offsets the Comstock story
doesn't it? We don't always trade off q
big find for a barrel of whisky and q
mule. You western fellows don't have
such good times with US now since we
have started the eyetooth business"
The miner whistled. "A regular Old
Dominion swell, is he?" quoth he. We'll
never should have guessed it. He amt
got the trade marks of an F. F. V"
He isn't one" remarked the Virgin
ian quietly. MIR. Anthony is as much
self made man as ANY of us" he
was going to say, but the memory OF
long line of white handed fo' bears
peacefully asleep among the blua Vir
ginia hills rose ano checked him. so he
changed his sentence-"as any of oul
mining plutocrats. His father was ar
Overseer on big tobacco plantation il
the James River valley in the old days
Anthony started from the ground, il
that's any advantage, and mind you
I'm not denying that it may be. All the
purple and fine linen of his career will
be of his own providing"
80 thought" responded the miner
land it's all right for him anyhow. II
he bankers after that sort of thing and
stops out here or goes north, he can set
up patent on being a Virginian, and il
he goes back there he can start three
letters of his own and break down the
old monopoly. p. L. NJ. makes as good
show as F. F. v any day, and it's got
| more solid back to il D"
The Virginian made no comment.
CHAPTER IL.