Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-18
THE LETTER TO MARY.
1t Cost Captain Johnson and Little Pee
 Their Lives.

w
 Their Lives.
 don't remember just how it came to our knowledge at Straw berry Hill, but somehow we got to know that Little Pete, as he was called, and Captain Johnson of our camp had both loved the same girl back in the States. l can well remember that her name, as we learned it, was Ma ry Williams, and that she lived in a little town in Michigan. It was queer bit of gossip to be floating around mining camp, you will say, but it came to us just the same, and there were times when the camp was divided on the question.
 Iexpect Mary found it hard to choose between them, or maybe she was coquet ting with both. At any rate, both of them started for the great west at about the same time to dig and delve for the precious stuff to make her comfortable for life, and fate drifted them face to face at Straw berry Hill. There was jealousy, of course, and they were not on speaking terms. The ambition of each one was to make his pile as soon as possible, and no miners ever worked harder. They were the first to be- gin and the last to quit, and neither of them would take a holiday nor stop for weather which drove the rest of us to our shanties.
 They had luck-they were bound to have it-and the time came when their united fortunes would have bought the rest of us out clean flown to our boots. If one had quit then, think the other would have pulled up stakes as we'll, but both remain ed and kept right at work. In the fall, aft CT they had beeu in camp for 20 months, postoffice was opened up the river at Red Horse Hill, six miles away, and both wrote letters to Mary, and both received answers. This was known to me because happened to go with the mail on certain days and had the curiosity to look at the superscrip- tions on the letters which were new things to us out in the mountains.
 One February day I brought down let ter for each of the lovers Snd knew that both were from Mary. An hour after my return to camp met the captain, and his looks betrayed the fact that bad news had come in his letter. Mary had told him, as afterward learned, that she had decided in the other mans favor When met Little Pete, his face was beaming with happi- ness, and he was about to write 8 letter In reply. Our mail came only once week, and so he had days to spare, but he not only wrote letter to Mary that afternoon, but decided to make the 12 mile journey to post it. Love is seldom reasonable and can never brook delay. When I learned of his intentions, sought to dissuade him, as there were signs of change of weather. It would be at least five days before the letter could leave Red Horse Hill, but the impatient lover was in a hurry to get it into the postmaster's keeping. He didn't want to lose any time from working hours, and he didn't want to trust the precious missive to other hands, and at clock in the evening he started away on his jour ney over a rough and lonely trail, saying he would be back before midnight.
 An hour after Little Pete left camp it was showing, and the flakes hadn't been falling 10 minutes when down came the wind from the north, and fierce blizzard set in. We talked it over and decided that he would reach Red Horse all right and stop there, and therefore went to bed easy in our minds. At midnight, however, when the gale was screaming over the hills, the snow flying so that no eye could see an object 10 feet away anCt it had turned so cold that we shivered under our blan- kets, the captain appeared in our shanty, fully dressed, and announced that he was going te set out up the trail to the relief of Little Pete. He had gone to sleep to dream that his rival was perishing in the storm, and neither ridicule nor argument could dissuade him from starting out. When we found him determined, we would have given him our company, but he would uOb WdlC. ne WaTuSu us lO nave ROOU fire ready and was gone.
 The night dragged away, but the cap tain did not return, nor did Little Pete stagger in between the screaming gusts. When daylight came and we: looked out on the raging storm, we realized that both were lost. All day long and far into the night the snow fell, and the icy blasts car ried the strength of a giant and the edge of knife. We were showed up. It was three long weeks before a chinook wind and & warm sun came to open the Red Horse trail, and then we hadn't far to search. Only quarter of a mile from camp, at bend of the trail where the snow had fallen deepest, we found the two dead men. A little way beyond that spot Captain Johnson had found Little Pete when he set out that night. He had found him lying on the trail, exhausted and dy. ing, and had lifted him up and carried him in his arms until the burden had over come him. Just poor little quarter of mile more, and the two might have been saved, but it was not to be-
 On the one we found letter from Mary saying that her heart had decided in his favor and asking him to soon return-on the other a letter by the same hand telling him that it could never be. And in the postoffice at Red Hill was a letter to Mary which had cost two men their lives.
 NJ OUAD