Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-11-11
ON THE PAYSTREAK
Continued From Sec, nd Papel

Continued From Seen Page)
scour the bedrock bare, or some pry1ng
hand finds their hiding place So, even if
the miner drop his shaft squarely upon
the paystreak, he does not know which
way TO follow it, but must be panning
out sample gravel every little while and
running his drift to one side or the
other according to what the pan tells him.
Rodolfo could scarcely wait to swal-
low the last of his tough tortilla Wash
ing 1t down with a hasty pull from the
keg, he shoveled the screen box full of
gravel, and taking the upright handle
with both hands began to sway the heavy
rocker from side to side while his mother
poured on water from the gourd. The
fine sand rapidly melted down through
the screen and went jolting down the
canvas apron to the back end of the rock
er, where 1t fell to the wooden bottom,
turned and began 20 wander forward to
the open front end. When the screen
was washed clear of sand Maria lifted it
out, clawed over the glistening pebbles
to make sure that there was no coarse
nuggets among them, and flung them
and wetting it down as before, while Ro-
dolfo kept on rocking. Time and again
the screen was emptied and refilled, and
all the while the rocking and the pouring
on Of water continued. The sloping bot
tom of the rocker was full of sandal
the lower end an inch deep-and this
sheet of sand, shaken by the motion and
coaxed on by the water, kept creeping
over the last rifle cleat and falling into
the clay lined reservoir, from which Ma
ria was now dipping back the water in
stead OF from the nearly empty key.
The afternoon shadows were deep in
the round hollows of the mighty Sandals
when Rodolfo rose from beside the
rocker, emptied the screen and straight
ened his stiff legs.
Now for clean up, nana!" he said.
She poured in Il gentle stream upon the
apron while he rocked; and as there
was now no new sand rolling down, that
on the apron and on the bottom of the
rocker began to work rapidly forward,
and in a few minutes there remained
only little sand caught in the angle
behind each rifle. Rodolfo whitfield
out smooth, thin stick with a square
end, and carefully scooped the wet
sand into his bowl, scraping out every
grain from the cracks. and proceeded to
pan it out. But now, instead of a few
handfuls of random dirt, the bowl held
the concentrated richness of half ton
of gravel from bedrock That was the
beauty of the rockcr-it would have
taken four times as long to work" that
pile of gravel with the pan; the rocker
did the heavy work in short order, and
left only the finishing touches for the
pan.
And now, when Rodolfo had got nd
of most of the sand and began to draw"
what was left ut the bottom of the bowl.
there was sight for four dark, glisten-
ing eyes. AS the unstable sand drifteG
forward and forward ii uncovered more
and more of a rich. deliberate bank of
yellow, till Rodolfo's trembling fingers
scarce could hold up that precious pan
from spilling, and excited tears ran
down Maria's thin checks. When at last
he had guided the gold safely into the
bottle he laid his face to hers and said in
| voice which was tremulous, but
strangely sweet:
at Is well. mana! The governor can
not have the serape that was my fathers.
And now let us go home"
The days went on. and the yellow dust
in the bottle had grown half way to the
| top. Here and there in it were little
| rounded nuggets and waxy fakes, which
Rodolfo loved to shake up. There was
whole sack of -four now in the iacal
and bushel Of friioles (Mexican beans.
| Every day Flojo-who had been bought
with one fat packed his load
| of water to the arroyo; and every dan
| RodolfO and his mother worked on the
gravel he sent up. His drift now raj.
! thirty feet ont from the bottom OF the
| shaft-a narrow dark, crooked burrow.
| at whose farther end he Law upon his
! side, and pecked away with his bar by a
candles stingy light. Some days he lost
the p2ystreak. and the panning out at
evening was very light; but soon he
| found il again, and all was well. And
| every day the bottle grew heavier and
| brighter, till it was Ike bar of lead TO
| lift
One morning as Rodolfo was working
IN his drift there came a sudden dull,
W" IuLioIe anu LOOSeneu PEOPLES fell
npon him. Filled with nameless dread.
he crawled out toward the shaft, but no
faint ray of daylight came to meet him
at the corner. The great bowlder under
which he had dug, five feet from the en-
| trance of the drift. had fallen ini He
had undermined it more than one should
III following the paystreak under it.
And now it had crushed out its gravel
| supports and had fallen and closed his
| burrow. He was buried alive. With
| trembling fingers he felt across its cold.
smooth surface. Another bowlder had
| followed 1t from above and filed its
place so that he could not dig out above
it, and TO try would cause cavein that
| would crush him.
Thought chased thought in strange