The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-21
THE CAVERN OF GOLD.
A FORTY-NINER'S WONDERFUL
TALE OF TREASURE.

More Wealth Than Monte Christie
Commanded-HowI It Was Lost.
From the Philadelphia Times.
As the train swept round a curve and we
looked from our seats in the smoking car at
the nights towering above it, writes Cali
fornia correspondent. Col b. waved his
cigar toward the snow-capped mountain
tops of the Sierra Nevada. There is macy
secret still buried in those grim old giants
breasts. There are still thousands stories
to be told Of them and those that have tried
to wrest their riches from them"
"And this preface, oolonell" meekly sug-
gested the writer.
means a story, of course" said tho col
onel. who is an old 49-er, and Il man known
among his compeers as integrity itself; "a
story that rivals any Haggard ever told or
Jules Verne dreamed OF. In 1871 / had
abandoned an unsuccessful search for fort
une in the mining camps and began the
practice Of law, when one day man named
Bellew came into my office. He had been
an old chum Of mine in the gold-hunting
days, and had known him 10 be an unusu-
ally straightforward, upright chap for those
la wleSs times, but that day be told me a
story that made me wonder If he was a
rogue with some scheme to work or the in
sanest man out of an asylum. He prefaced
this story by showing me half dozen mug
gets of gold that fairly took away my
breath. They were splendid fellows, the
smallest Of them weighing at least four
ounces, and what Is MORE they were nearly
pure metal.
"'Beauties, amt theyP said Bellew; then
looking to see that the door was fast locked,
half Whispered: And know where tens of
thousands of 'em can be found. he
searched his pockets aud produced something
wrapped in a rag. which, being unrolled, ex-
hibited to my amazed eyes bracelet-a
man's in size-of beaten gold. This held
while he told his story.
Bellows STORY.
" DO you remember where, close to the
old Jessie May mine, we found the lost
river2 The stream you know, amt never in
sight, but IL you listen at little place torn
in the side of the hill you can hear the
sound Of a river rushing over rocks down
below, and how you can feel the very spray
Of the water II you hold your hand In a
little ways. Well. one day me and a man
named Scoggin had climbed that hill after q
deer we were following, and when the deer
was killed we got to quarreling over whose
shot had killed him. All at once Scoggin
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 l went. ] thought
| was gone, for fell plump into the water,
and an angry stream 1t was, too, running
over rocks and with a channel almost too
small for II, but only knew this from the
bumps and thumps l got as / was carried
on, for it was as dark Egypt. Way my
brains weren't knocked out twenty times /
can't say, but after awhile the river get to
~ a III Nal
| struck out for the right hand bank and
pretty soon was able TO crawl out of the
water. rested here for awhile consider
ing what was to do, for / was the worst
lost of any man l had heard OF, but it did no
good to sit still, 80 began to feel around and
stumbled along the bank, guided by the
waters murmur, until reckon | had gone
nearly half mile; then the river seemed to
plunge deeper into the earth aud the roof
Of the cavern grew 81 low l could not fol-
low it. but some distance off | saw a polut
Of light like a star. and, going to this, found
il hole In the side of the mountain, and |
crept out. Well, I've visited that cavern
several times since, carrying torches, and
I've seen some things amt going TO tell
you Of now, but l want q partner in thia
business for reasons you'll see later; aud,
knowing l could depend on you to act
square with me. B., / looked you up.
I'm going to make your fortune, old man.
Why, Monte Christie will be small fry COM
pared to you and me when we've got our
treasure out
VISIT TO THE CAVERN.
eve arranged to visit the cavern the fol-
lowing day end started early on horseback.
We had made some six or seven miles when
all at once we felt the earth tremble vi
olently and Bellows pony fell on his knees.
But there was no harm done and an earth
Il N IA
try for much to be made OF 1T; so, though
we felt two more distinct shocks before we
reached our destination, little was said
about it. Before we entered the cavern
Bellew produced half dozen torches, some
provisions, 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
the torches, made our way to where
the river entered the low-roofed chan
mel 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 impossi-
BILE to sit upright. A shove sent the canoe
into the middle of the stream, where the
current caught it and sent it whirliug
along. There wsre several minutes Of this
etrange journeying. when the roof lifted ell
at once aud We sat up. The lantern showed
us dim shore, 20 which Bellew padded,
and getting out we hauled up the canoe,
and lighting the torches walked forward
among the rocks, with which the roof of
that vast cavern was lined. All at once
found myself in the midst of city OF
overturned houses. They were not nuts,
but rather pretentious structures OF stone,
and around them lay the skeletons or the
people whose dwellings they had bsen. BEL
lew gave me no time to examine these, but
led on to the largest building Of the collec-
ton. which numbered several hundreds.
This knew TO be a temple from the style
of its architecture, which resembles some-
what the temples of India. This was in
ruins like the rest, but was still In
measure upright. We entered, stumbling
over several skeletons all with golden orna-
ments about their necks, legs and wrists,
hut / 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 a ton, and scattered about
were scores Of other images, all Of the same
precious metal aud representing various
birds and animals, while the largest one was
that of q man or woman, | don'5 remember
now which. The altar, which measured
about four feet square, was Of gold also,
and further inspection showed me that the
very walls Of the temple were of the same.
GOLD EVERYWHERE.
nIk was gold gold gold eyerywharef I