The Portland daily press., 1893-08-03
THE NUGGET.

L know where Gnere is a piece o. gOlQ
that four men can not lift with their
bare hands.
Pancho Gonzales made this remark to
me as he and were sitting alone at our
campfire in one of the lonely canyons of
the Guadalupe Mountains, in Western
Texas.
Joking was not one of Pancho's char
acteristics. He was rather sober and
taciturn, and not given to speaking often
Unless spoken to.
For three years had known Fran
cisco, or Pancho, as he was called for
short, and during that time we had
come to be pretty good friends. He was
a handsome, brigandish-look fellow,
spoke English well, and bore traces of
what was probably considered in his
country good bringing up.
He had always been reticent as to his
past, but I had many theories OF my
own in regard. to his former occupation
in his native land.
eyes" he answered, as urged him to
go on with the story, !" will tell you all
about it, / never told any one else, be-
cause it is dangerous; but can trust
you not to tell another.
at was five years ago, in Mexico, that L
SAW UudU plcCC VI 2Olt, anu IL ID ollOlC
vet, for no one knows of it but me. 1t
weighs over 400 pounds and will bring
death to any one who discovers it.
"There were eight of us banded to-
gether then-Mexicans all. We called our
selves foresters, but believe the soldiers
called us brigands. My cousin was cap
tain and / was his lieutenant.
"There was a rich gold mine in the
Sierra Madre worked by a big English
company who employed about twenty
white men and several hundred Mexicans
and Indians. The mine was far in the
mountains, over $50 miles from the
railroad; but the company at great ex-
pense had built a wagon road to it to get
the machinery there for the big mill.
.@We had friend or two among the
Mexicans there, and we always knew
! when any treasure was to be shipped,
and frequently profted by it,
"Finally the superintendent hit upon
another plan that he thought safe.
aHe had the bullion output for the
entire month melted into one lump. AS
This amounted to nearly 100, 900 pesos it's
weight was 400 pounds, and in its trans
portation by wagon would need only a
nominal escort, as piece of gold too
heavy to handle or dispose OF safely
would be of no use to us men of the
road.
"Meanwhile the captain, who hated to
be thwarted, worried over it day and
night until he finally invented a scheme
that proved successful SO far as getting
the gold was concerned, though it never
did any of us any good.
"The next day proceeded to the mine,
and easily got job of shovel1ng rail
| ings near the mill In less than week
l found that the team was ordered out
| for the railroad the next morning.
"Ihat night I caught my horse, and,
l ire N TpnOpfpd I'm the can
| tain, who Immediately ordered us to sad
die up and follow him, and before mid
| night we drew bride in some heavy pine
| timber, 100 yards from the wagon road,
i where we unsaddled and went into camp.
| "At daylight, leaving our horses Sc
cured in the timber, we ambushed our
| selves. four ON either side of the road,
among the rocks and underbrush. Our
captain had chosen place where the
road. after climbing a steep hill by a
| tortl1ous grade, was level for only few
| wards at the summit before plunging
downward into a. deep canyon.
Ear down in the direction OF the mine
| though, of course, the mine itself was
NOT visible, being over two leagues dis
tant-we could see the team approach
| ino Is was drawn by four animals,
| and as If came nearer we noted that the
animals were mules and that the wagon
| held four men besides the driver.
| "But the captains ORDERS were sGrlct.
| We were to kill every one, as only by SC
doing could we hope to succeed in our
plan Tor keeping the gold after we had
| obtained it.
"Five men were to shoot first, at a
given signal, each picking his man, while
the captain, myself and another were to
reserve our fire in case the first volley
should not be fatal to all OF the victims.
"Now the heads of the mules appeared
as they neared the summit-a few more
turns of the wheels and the wagon was
on the level, and then-a whlstle--a
rattleing discharge of the rifles and all
was still.
| "The mules had halted at the volley
and were breathing hard from the heavy
pull, and as we waited in our cover for
a sign of life from the victims, the only
sound we heard was the drip, drip of the
| blood from the wagon bed.
"The captain stepped out of cover and
| advanced to the wagon, while we all fol-
lowed. The four men behind had been
/ seated facing each other, and had fallen
| forward from their seats. But we were
after gold, not dead bodies, and when
the last corpse was thrown out there Law
| the gold at the bottoms huge lump in