The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-03-01
A WHOLE MAN.

where. If he take offense at rough ban
ter, Lord help him when he gets into a
mining camp. If he wear his heart
upon his sleeve, let him steer clear Of
the Mexican towns and their pretty SEN
oritas. If he would know any peace,
let him keep away from the cattle
range, for the cowboys jests are as keen
and cutting as the spurs at their heels.
Frank Robbins was beginning to find
out some of these things. But if you
gave him a whole decade he would not
find them all out.
"What the boy wants is toughening,"
said Mart Selby.
Mart was big and tough, and he saw
no good reason why anybody but child
or woman should be tender.
"He's young colt that wants Mex
lean bit showed into his mouth, and then
to be ridden through the cactus"
AT Lucin's ranch the boys joked and
irritated Robbins, but it did not seem to
tougher him. They cared nothing for
whisky that didn't scratch AS it went
down, and when he put water in his
they called him perfect lady and
laughed loudly.
"Staud their joshing," said Mart to
Robbins, land you'll get along better.
They'll always make it hot for man
that don't josh back"
sob, don't mind it," said Robbins,
badly overriding his effort to look I'M
concerned.
1t had been the same everywhere he
had been in the west. He was one of
those men who are never anything but
tenderfeet. He simply would not take
men as he found them, though they
were perfectly willing to take him so.
And the absurd ideas that had Judgment
in his head! Chief among these were
that he must have friend-a chum--
who should be man after his own
heart. He had been looking for such a
man for two years. He picked him out
occasionally, but he never found him to
suit. This one was not truthful, that
one was not temperate and the other
was not nice i'll his speech. There was
something lacking in each one.
"What | want is whole man." he
sighed. 81 never could take up with
these half made fellows. But it is not
so easy. Even when | find man that
is temperate and intellectual he turns
out to be selfish. What would l not
give for whole man for friend and
companion-a whole manr
He would not take up with Mart Sci
by, though Mart saw 1.-The young fell
low" sorely needed friend and helper,
particularly one who would tougher
him. He kept ON looking for his made
to-order man, but he never seemed to
hit upon him. Few such men as he was
looking for are to be found within a
thousand miles of Lucin's. In fact, at
Lucin's you would be at loss to dis,
cover single man who did not like to
take observations at Old Ashby's cloth
and paper ceiling through the bottom of
a whisky glass, and if you heard a voice
| will give you my word of honor it was
no cherub's.
One day the boys outdid all theiI
little meannesses to Robbins by getting
him hopelessly drunk. Of course il
was no killing matter, but he had never
been drunk before, and he took it very
seriously and resolved to leave camr
next day.
Mart did not like this. His heart haG
warmed toward "the young fellow
and he hated to see him leave the place
Finally he resolved to go with him.
They agreed between them that they
would not go on the range again. They
would go prospecting for gold.
And thus it was that they came tx
make the journey over the desert to
ward Dead Horse gulch. Now, as every
body in that col ntry knows, the wealth
Of Dead Horse gulch is great, but it il
very hard to reach. Miners, who hav,
lived out the awful heat of the alkal
plain that lies all around the butte
wherein the gulch makes its cash, hav,
come back with full belts, but none O
them has ever gone second time.
In suggesting this journey Mart Selb,
had double object. First, he wanted
to tougher "the young fellow" ant
next, he wanted to enrich them both
Mart knew that Robbins had come on
west to make enough money to marry
nice girl who lived in Delaware, and h
knew, too, that 1.-the young fellow" haC
found money making very slow work
From Lucin's to the great alkali plail
that lay before the buttes in which tn
gold was hidden was long and toll
some journey. But the real work onl,
began with the crossing Of the alkal
desert.
, White and naked lay the dead lanC
before their aching eyes. The eye o
. heaven shone down with most unrelent
ing ferceness. No breath of air wa
stirring, and the whole world was t.
them as dumb as death.
Mart had counted on the journey be
\ ing hard one, but not so hard as this
He had not dreamed that the waite
{ would give out so soon, nor that tn
horses would sink down and die as the
= did.
Still they staggered on, their forms
bent under their heavy burdens, stand
ing out sharp and raw above the whit
earth, on which their clearly define
shadows fell with inky blackness.
In that cloudless, mistless air, distanc
seemed set at naught, for they travele
on and on toward the buttes, and yt
they seemed to grow no nearer
1t was toward evening that the
reached rocky islet in the sea of alkal
and there, after very bad meal of har
tack, they fell asleep, Robbins dreamin