Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-08-30

au Inc thrIy rect OF DeQrOcK ne naQ
cleaned up, there was not hollow; but
right here, its edge an inch from where
he had dug, was "pocket" of unknown
size. Some bowlder, caught in the
eddies of forgotten centuries, had rolled
around and around in this one spot till
it ground for itself basin in the stub
born bedrock. The grinding rock was
there now-he could feel with his bar its
rounded side amid the fine sand with
which the hole had filed before the
stream built that torrent pile above
and lifted its own bed by nearly twenty
feet. The pothole lay partly under one
end of the fallen bowlder, so that he
could dig in it without danger of
serious oavein. If it was deep enough
and wide enough!
He dove the bar fiercely into the hard
gravel, he pried away the stones and
scooped out the sand with fingers that
bled to their ungentle touch. In mo-
ment he had cleared a place large
enough to let him at the buried pothole.
Laying aside the heavy bar, he began to
| claw out the sand with frantic hands
and throw it back between his legs like
| a rabbit burrowing. Now and then a
loosened stone from the roof gave him a
| cruel pelt on the head or back, but he
hardly noticed it. The candle was
burning very family now, and his
breath grew short and thick. The scant
air of his prison was fast becoming a
deadly poison, Even if the pothole
were big enough, could he keep breath
to burrow through? He was down in
the pothole now, right under the fallen
| bowlder. The round stone which had
J worn that blessed pit was too heavy to
! be lifted out, but he had half yard be-
! tween it and the bowlder above, and that
was room enough.
At last his hand, burrowing forward,
came to a polished concave surface. 1t
was the farther side of the pothole! He
scooped away the sand with vigorous
! energy until he could feel all along that
strange, bowl-like wall, and in an agony
of doubt lifted his hands to see what
was above. They touched something
| hard and smooth and convex, and he
shrieked aloud. It was the great
bowlder-it covered the farther side of
the great pothole, and he would never
get Quit But no! 1t is q smaller rock
and there is another wedged beside it,
and another! The pothole opens out
beyond the prison bowlder!
He crawled back for his bar but it
was too long to be turned up in that
passage under the great rock. His
strength was almost gone His head
swan and strange whirr was in his
ears. To die after all, with dear life sc
nearl He caught up a smooth stone
that had fallen in the drift, and lying
upon his back in the pothole began te
hammer desperately overhead, cracking
off rocky splinters that filled his eyes
crushing his fingers blindly, working
stupidity, as one half asleep.
And then a round stone as big as hi
head fell and barely missed his face, ant
shower of sand and that sweetest thing
in all the world, the fresh air of HEAVIER
and Rodolfo knew no more.
"Pero! What keeps Rodolfo so long?
muttered Maria anxiously, "for was a
home much time, and not yet has h
filed the bucket to send up. Rodolfo
Little sonr' And she leaned over tn
shaft, calling shrilly again and again.
"May the hottest mother help me,
she murmured, catching tho rope an
shivering, 'for it is very deep. But
must sec what has como to my boy.
| ALL S1lulIlS uO"u Ill0 llttlS l1 loE'c, VIII
burned and failing fingers, she fell in
heap to the bottom.
: When Rodolfo opened his eyes the lii
= tie hole above his face had grown larger
= | and slender, bleeding fingers were teal
, ing at its rough sides. Family at frs
9 but with growing strength, he hammere
! with his stone from within, until at las
he squeezed through the narrow openin
: and crawled with his fainting mother
! daylight at the bottom of the shaft.
:, 1t was late at night when the boy ws
. strong enough to climb the rope an
n windlass his mother up, and for man
o days both lay helpless and fevered in tt
little jacal, cared for by kindly vecinC
. from Dolores.
q But both got well at last, and Rodol1
= went back to work in his placer CLAIM
= which quite filled the bottle and man
~ others like it in course Of time. But tn;
\ blessed pothole which had saved his Iii
\ was what really made him rich ma
- for that poor country. 1t had been
lively miser in its day, and when
cleaned it out, we'll knowing that such
? pit in the very path of the pay streak w;
- the best of all traps to catch the vagral
= gold, he washed out in one day from tt
- gravel in its bowllike bottom so mar
~ hundreds of dollars worth of yellow du
=. and fat nuggets that he never dared te
how much there was, and doubt if al
: one knows to this day.-C. f. Lummis
y Detroit News.