The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-10-09
RUNNING UT AN ANGEL.

uOuUtUO " I'LL uuO OIIt
Gents" said Major Fulton, ponder
ously, T've saw hundreds, mebbe
thousan's, of 'em. an l say tn feller's
bogus, anil bear right smart chance o.
watchin' that's what think"
Hes dead wrong" assented little
Ike Bullet, who always agreed with the
Major in everything. 'Of, course, his
actin mysterious hain't really nothin'
p'tic'lar ag'in i'm. Folks out yere-
that is, they hain't nobody, hardly,
th't hain't got somethin't by mys-
that is, some o. them ducks is myste-
rious an some's noisy, like" finished
Ike, lamely, realizing that had had al
most slipped into personalities.
"Tried t. talk t 'im," sighed 'Lazy"
Wolf, with his customary stretch.
"S |. Firm the States, 1 recon%
Yes, : he. "Xpect t. go intuh min
in p IS L. Possibly he, an then 'e
gifts out of good, comftble cheer an
walks off"
"Hain' nobody but my clerk gifts no
talk out of 'im," put in Colonel Hanks,
the landlord, "an' bout all 'e says t
Billy is Nice day. an Cigar, please
But e pays lis bills, an carries roll,
toe l s'pose that's all | ought t wor-
ry bout"
''Oh, yes. oh, yes ~ snapped little
Ike, excitedly, ''an' all tn time, him
Iayin', most likely, FIR t jerk tn props
firm under he Pm fr' startin' i'm, /
am, an pretty quick, too9'
81 wouldn't be too hasty gentlemen"
counseled the mild voice of Professor
Hendrix, editor of the Gold Hill Ava
lanche. 1--WE may, after all, be enter
tanning an angel-that is, a sucker
unawares. Let no guilty capitalist
escape ere he has been induced 10 in
vest
''He hain't no capitalist" interject-
ed the Major, scornfully. "He's too
too quiet. think he'd better have tn
run"
Easy, Major, easy" said Hendrix,
softly. "Now / would suggest that
We select committee of, say, two, to
sound the gentleman and endeavor, by
peaceful means, if possible, to cause
him to give an account of himself. If
he declines to do So The editor
concluded with tolerably graceful
wave of his hand, for the subject of the
foregoing remarks-a pale, somewhat
ordinary looking young man in clothes
of Eastern cut-had just entered and
was passing through the room.
Time was when Gold Hill had been
thriving, busy camp, with metropoli-
tan aspirations. But its boom died,
and the glories of Gold Hill were only
a memory to the three hundred citi-
zens (who remained behind because
they could not afford to leave what
little was left them of their former pos
session !, and to the suckers" who had
dropped their money at the time of the
rush. 1t was still the centre of fairly
good but steadily ''petering" mining
district, and there yet remained the
hope on the part of many citizens that
some one might make another big
strike" and the old times come back;
in which case they would be ''in on the
ground floor" But several years had
seen only a steady decline in Gold
Hill, and an increase of prosperity on
the part of its hated rival, New Kim
berly, the inhabitants of which were
wont to profess ignorance of the exist
ence of the former metropolis, albeit
only twenty miles separated the two
camps.
1t was i'm the second year after the
death of Gold Hill boom that the busi-
ness men of that camp began 10 realize
that retrenchment was necessary.
There was always the hope of
strike" or a chance of unloading
something at good price on some un-
sophisticated ''tenderfoot" but, in the
meantime, it was necessary to ''look
after the leaks" The gentlemen who
kept the dispensaries had as lively a
sense of the necessity for retrenchment
as the rest, and they went about econo-
mizing i'm a practical manner.
There was in the camp a prominent
but somewhat impecuniOus citizen,
known as Joe Godfrey, and Mr.. God
frey had formerley resided in the
'moonshine" districts. This latter
fact gave Major Fulton and Hanks an
idea. The bottom lands near by grew
large quantities of cereals, including
corn. Putting two and two together
Joe Godfrey and the corn-crop-and-
WHY, il was as easy as anything could
be. In short time Mr.. Godfrey's
work made itself felt by the wholesale
men, who shook their heads over the
decadence of business, not only in the
Jul cNhNha VottN
camps, as well. Revenue officers shook
their heads, too, and sought to ascer-
tain the cause of this unaccountable
state of things. But only one of them
had found what he sought, and he
mysteriously disappeared, failing even
to call for his baggage or to pay his bill
at the hotel. And Messrs. Fulton,
Hanks, ct al, waxed fat and prosper
Gus i'm the midst of seeming adversely,
yet were ever circumspect, as behooves
gentlemen who defy the laws OF Gov
ernment. There were no informers in
Gold Hill. The man who gave the
revenue officer who mysteriously
disappeared the information that ied
To the finding of the still, was shot i'm