The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-03-04
EOR YELLOW GOLD.

out the small blackboard; but when
there were more than four passengers,
the big mud-wagOn was put on" This
was a blackboard day, for there was not
single passenger. What was more to
the point, as the Gold Butte Mining
Company regarded it, was that under
the drivers seat was box with $4,000
in the newest of tens and twenties in it.
The driver had looked very blue when
he drove his four mustangs from the
pos..!asi.oU .;Lecc - tGG!. G.. & So aat
leather bag, which spoke loudly of the
incapacity OF Discrimination of the Thin
BILE Spring people for letter-writing-
over to the railroad station, where he
was to take on the box. Things were
going all wrong at home. That was
why his brown face looked so hagg lrd;
that was why he held so loosely to the
lines; that was why he chewed so hard
on the bit of plug in his mouth.
''Such hard scratchin' l never seed
afore," was what he had said as he had
listlessly thrown the mail bag into the
wagon; cant get no decent job nova
days. Nothin' ter be he'd by prospectin'
tried tibet time an ag'in; eff | git any
thing, it peters ont inside of week. |
might make strike over ter Sand
Gulch, but it's a derned long way off,
an me AN Sue an the kids hez moved
so often at we can't raise nOthin' ter
move on now. Why in Sam Hill did Sue
hev ter git that rhemmatiz jes now,
when Yves 50 hard up, an afore she
weaned the baby? It's shame. Why
can't Bill git somethin' ter do?-great,
big, lunk-hcaded cuss. Eff l he'd
brother, poorer'n crow, dye think I'd
go an live on him, an live ON him, till
thar warn't nuthin' ter eat in the house?
ShO, Zach Springer, you're a blamed
fool. Bill hain't done that. He ai'nt
ter blame fer getting his leg broke that
time. Bills all right, but he's onlucky
Been trying fur month ter git a job,
an can't get in nowhere. He's willin'
ter work. He'd stan knee-deep in the
creek all day long washin' out tallin's,
eff he could make his salt at it. Tried it
buy o'gum-boOts. Whoa, Buckskin!
He'd jam right inter the station platform
eff yer didn't saw his teeth eout.'
And then the box was taken on, and
the express agent had something to say.
That something was not to Zach
Springers liking. He chewed harder
than ever ON the bit of plug, and sawed
the hard mouths OF the mustangs by an
unnecessary yanking of the reins. 1t
was positive relief to be able at least to
whack his lash down upon the sides of
the nervous bruteS and turn them loose
for the forty. mile run to Gold Butte. Why
did he need a lecture from hireling of
the express company, and why should
that smooth owled agent have looked
at him with such dark suspicion?
They think COS got stood up down
ter Black Rocks las time | had big
load o gold that need to be preached
to every time go out now with full
box. Stoop-shOuldered, desK-settin'
hounds! I'd like ter see one on 'em
handlin' the ribbons when thar's Win
chester lOokin' at 'em with an eye as big
as bar lhead. Can't tell me they
wouldn't give in! The sweet scented,
calf-skin booted young ladies! Thar
amt man among en-"
Zach Springer's indignation was now
In more complete possession of him than
had been his feeling of blueness little
earlier. What he had delivered himself
of just now was not what he would have
said had he voiced his true sentiments
with reference to the express agents lee
tuTe. In between the words ran the
thought they" had suspected him of
having hand in the Black Rocks rob
what he called a left-handed way, and
he had had other outbursts of righteous
indignation, but none in which the up
heaval was great as that of the pres
ent. Had that been the reason the stage
company had cut down his pay to sixty
month? The chances were that it was.
1t was too blamed mean for a lot of |
swine, like these people, to come it so
hlgh-handedly over poor man who !
only wanted his own. Wouldn't it serve |
them just right if
The white dust of the desert rolled up |
from the mustangs hOOGs, and sprays of |
it, pOwdery line, followed the turn of the .
wheels halfway up, there to be caught |
by the breeze and drifted behind in a |
long cloud that followed the blackboard |
like a haunting spirit. Sometimes, as
the light breeze shifted. it came back
upon the blackboard and its driver like
heavy thoughts on the conscience of a
guilty man.
1t would serve them Just right! Be-
sides that, only think-ten thousand! |
What would the people down in Mexico
or Guatemala where he would fly, know
or care if somebody up in far-Off Nevada
had dumped box off his blackboard
and gone back and got it after few
udy S-IliN tDG MCGhS IL WOulu nave
to be dark night, wouldn't it? You
couldn't go and get box like that in
the daytime and take it anywhere, for
the whole country would be out looking
for the man who had it. May be
month. That would be better. 1t would
all blow over by that time. Let's see,
would it? Ten thousand was good
deal. Those stage shoppers were always
spiklng the box on the wrong day.
They never got so much as that at one
haul. In two months, then-perhaps
two months. But it would have to be
well hidden.
The thought stuck to him, despite all
attempts to keep it off, though by the
time lie had driven the mustangs into
Red Canon, his Indignation at having
been suspected by the company had
died down. The box at his feet had
taken new meaning for him. 1t meant
smart gowns for wife. 1t meant good
schooling for the children. Those five
little ones had had hard rustic of it to
get what few scraps of learning they
had thus far managed to clutch; and, as
for clothes, they were dressed like jul
venile scare-crOws. Yes, all the hard
scratching would be over if he dared to
do what many another hard-pushed man
had done. Resolving the whole matttr
down to plain, clear-cut proposition, it
was, after all, simply question of
nerve.
IIaro ,,-o, A.