The National tribune., 1894-04-26

1860, X" which Dan promptly appropriated
and fondly applied to his lips, his move
ments followed by six pairs of envious eyes.
You can't keep it, so / might as well tell
the straight Of it myself" continued the
young man, balancing himself preeariously
upon an overturned wheelbarrow. 81 guess
you will laugh-Dan did; but amt seen
where the laugh comes in yet. / may when
nay hair gets TO laying fiat enough for me
to comb, which it aint as yet.
you see, it was like this. / had been
over at Humbug, calling on female friend
of mine at the Gold Dust Hotel, and the
time slipped by so pleasantly that when
looked at my watch found 1 had less than
an hour to get over to Winning Card to get
the bullion out of the safe for the Silver
City stage, which passes about IL o'clock.
You know how the road winds around
Quartz Hill from Humbug to the Card p
it's good five mile, mostly uphill Well, [
knew that l couldn't make it that way, and
as it was such bright, moonlight night l
thought that / would chance old Ashby IS
Trail over the hill, which isn't over two
mile. You know Ashby's Trail, Dan
That's the one him and Dick Dunn fought
about, and he had to kill Dick"
"Yep," replied Dan, his eyes twinkling
o. day this mOrniD', an'"-
Never mind" broke in Hastings. 81
thought could see well enough to keep out
of the holes and make pretty good time, but
that old hills got an abandoned mine every
so foot, and they ruu from 10 TO 500 feet
deep. l don't believe there is curb or
board over the whole blessed lot. Well,
was making good time enough until came
along to where l Judged the B0btaif Exten-
sion was-a good 600 feet deep, if it's foot
when l noticed that the sky was clouding
up. In about five minutes l felt chilly
gust of wind and then it suddenly got
blacller than stack of black cats. Know
ing where l was, and the danger of stepping
into the Bobtail, made the cold chills play
tag up and down nay spinal column. l
slowed up, and for while showed one foot
ahead of the other until l begun to get care
less, thinking that knew the lay of the land
well enough to know that l was past the
worst of it. Suddenly, just as started to
sing the first verse of The Days of 49,
stepped on nothing but oxygen-and | knew
to dead certainty that l was falling into.
The Bobtail
"If | live to be thousand years old,
will never forget the feeling of horror that
took possession Of me. AS plunged forward,
/ instinctively threw out my arms, and
fetched, breast up, against piece of scant-
ling-the only thing left of floor that had
once covered the shaft-with a suddenness
that took away my breath. 1 hung on to
that scantling like grim death, for / knew it
was the only thing between me and the
hereafter; but / was limp and nerveless
from the shakng-up l had received.
after a while though, / put out one foot
and felt for the left wall-couldn't reach it
Tried little harder, and got so interested in
the operation that slipped my hold on the
board, and barely caught it with my hands! I!
l tell you, my heart came up into my mouth,
and / could feel the cold sweat dropping
from under my cap and running down my
back. But had touched the side, and in
doing 80 knocked off piece of wall-rock,
which heard 60 ehinkety-chink, chinkety
chink until counted b. then faint splash
in the bottom.
81 was so weak by this time that could
not wiggle one hand over the other and
make the side that way. All could do
was to hang on and yell. And didn't yell,
though! But nobody heard me- except
lonesome old coyote, who came up and had
a yell with me. After while 1 made up
my mind that I'd got to go, and then L be-
gan to think of every mean thing | ever did
III my from hittcnS Co-WCAiJ
no matter what to-and the few good
things; they didn't take me long. You can
laugh, if you want to; but aint going to
drink any more; can tell you that, now!
Il thought of myself lying in that black
pit o. hell, starving and mangled, wishing
for death that came so slow. Somehow, that
seemed all right could stand that; but
when thought of the $500, Stage Company
money, in my pocket, and they advertising
me as an absconding thief-it was worse
than horrible!
at was about that time that began to
feel around for the end of prayer or two
that used to know when 1 was a kid, and
as l repeated the familiar Now 1 lay me
down to sleep could see my old gray haired
mother, away down East on the old home
farm in Vermont-I could see her sitting in
the little low roeking-chair at the west win
dow, where she wrote me she would always
sit as the sun went down in the west, and
give him message for her dear boy, to de-
liver when he smiled upon him after she
had gone to bed. could see father come in
and hand her the paper-the one I sub
scribed to for her when first came here.
could sea her dear old face f1ush with pleas