The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1893-01-27
THE SHADOW IN THE MOSML lCHT.
A Weird Story About n Blind and Dem or
allied Miner.

allied Miner.
You couldn't stop man from stalk
ing out II claim if the ground was not
already covered, and so, though none
of us liked the looks of this new chap
who came in on us at Straw berry Hill,
we couldn't gainsay his stalking out
and putting up rude shantv, says a
writer in the n. Y. San. We soon
discovered that his looks did not belle
him. You'd expect to find some bad
men in the mines, but this man, whom
we soon nicknamed Satan. was worse
than any dozen of them put together.
The way he would curse God and
man was something awful to hesr. and
we sometimes wondered why the wrath
of heaven was not visited upon him.
We ostracized and outlawed him. but
he would not % away. Only the fear
that we would string him up kept MIN
from doing murder. for he had tenn
per like a wild beast.
One day, after dinner, and after
spell at cursin9 and reviling. he went
down into his claim and fired blast
which blinded him forever. Then he
became worse than before. His ours
inc and ravinm became 50 constant
that we built him shanty on the
rocks half a mile away and led him in
to it. Three times a day a man was
sent up with his meals, and this con-
tinued for weeks and weeks. For a
long time there was no change in his
health or disposition. Then he began
to grow thin and wan and to cease
cursing, and one evening he asked of
the man who brought his meals:
Jim, is thar trail leading up here
from camp9"
No." was the reply.
"If anybody was comm down the
trail from Top Notch how would they
hit me?"
why, strike across about forty rods
above camp"
And the door faces that way?"
"Ycs."
"How's the nights now, Jim?"
Full moon and bright as day"
That was about all that was said, but
/ wish to tell YOU here that when Satan
was blinded his eyelids were closed
fast. He could never open them after
that except he used his fingers. There
was an injury 10 the muscles control
ing them rs well rs to his vision. Day
and night were alike TO him.
On that very night, about half an
hour after midnight, prowling wolf
disturbed our camp and routed out
three or four men. They were driv-
ing the beast away when they looked
up and saw a shadow on The Top Notch
trail. Ii was rs light rs day. ard
there was no question in their minds.
It was queer shadow. 1t had the
shape of a little old woman, bent over
with aye, and it foated about in an
uncertain way. The three or four
men passed from tent to tent and be-
fore long sixty or seventy Of us were
out and had our eyes fastened on the
queer thing. By and by it Hoated
over the rocks and shrubs towards
Satan's shanty, and every man of us
followed it to the door and beyond
with his eyes.
Its woman--an old woman"
whispered a score of men.
But what can woman be doing
here?"
One or two suggested that some
body 90 up to the shanty, but no one
volunteered. There was something SO
queer and uncanny that nobody felt
like making closer investigation. 1t
was perhaps ten minutes after the fig
ure entered the shanty before it reap
peared 1t passed over the same
ground in the same peculiar way, and
as it reached the trail it halted for
moment, as if looking back. Oure eyes
followed it up the plain, broad trail
fai tn,p ly-f Il iC-
solved
"What did it look like to you?" asked
one man of another.
a little old woman, bent and fee
BILE" was the reply.
All had seen alike. You may ask
why some one didn't pursue. No man
had ever seen a live woman on that
trail, or expected to. This was a
woman. and yet it w.s not. It's pres
ence cast an awe upon everybody.
Some of the men returned to bed, and
others gathered in groups and talked
IN whispers until daylight came.
There were fifty men who went up in
a crowd to Satan's shanty.
They found him fully dressed and
seated in the door, and he had been
dead for hours. Perhaps you expected
that, bat let me tell you his eyes were
wide open, his vision seemed to have
returned, and he was looking across
to Top Notch trail just as living man
would-aye, looking and looking, and
his face had softened and smile had
crept over it and been held there by
the fingers of Death.
1T was the spirit of his mother"
whispered the men, as they looked in
to the face of the dead man, and so
we have ever believed.