The record-union., 1895-01-26
The Story.

he Story.
It's glory had departed long before
knew that it had ever existed. 1t was
one of those camps that rose, houriShed,
withered and died in day, leaving a
score or so of deSolate houses, whose
blinking, curtainless windows tried hard
to stare one out Of countenance.
l stumbled upon Mullen Bar during a
recent trip through the mountains. In
many places old, weather-beaten struct-
ures were in danger OF being precipitated
into yaWning chaSms made by caVIng,
in OF some of the many tunnels that
hOneycom bed the earth. no spot, III early
days, having been deemed sacred that
gave in return for labor particles of preci-
Gus, glittering gold.
A single store of general merchandise
contained everything necessary to a min
ing camp, from the ever present pick and
pan, to the proyerbial black barrel, whose
liquid contents hissed down the thirsty
throats OF seasoned customers In un-
stinted draughts, the proprietor never
falling to take a generous allowance for
his capacious stomach's sake, ending
with a hearty, if not very polite, invita-
tion to call in the near future and repeat
the entire performance. a rambling old
house, Sorely III want of repairs and
paint, cast to the breeze pine shake, on
which was printed in pOtter's clay, inter-
lined with charcoal, the information that
one might secure square meaP' within
upon payment OF six bits' in advance.
The artist, it was evident, had either mis-
calculated his distances or relied upon
variety to catch the eye OF the ravenous
pubic, as the announcement commenced
with characters of generous size and
ended with an Irregular line which might
have been rendered "stabling here" or
''staving beer" probably left in that
state OF uncertainty as catch for the eye
OF both teamster and .tippler, at the same
time nursing very limited space.
1t was an afternoon i'll midsummer
when the grass was parched and dead
and the sun beamed unrelentiugly upon
Mullen Bar that L first looked upon its
squalor and picked my way through un-
gaInly heaps OF gravel to the door Of the
rambling hotel with the suggestive sign.
L was soon seated ut one SIDE OF a rough
pine table, IN one OF the stutfy little
rooms, opposite the laudlady, who, at my
request, had Joined me in the discussion
OF bottle labeled native wine.H The
landlady was stout, red-taced, ditto
nosed dame with garrulous tendencies,
VINO carried her fifty years with no APP
parent difficulty. She had, short time
previously, buried her third husband, and
was not. was led to believe, averse to a
fourth, provided only that a favora bic
opportunity presented Itself.
From her own trials and tribulations.
which contained fell and complete ac-
counts OF each OF her lamented husbands,
and OF the guests invited to attend the
christening OF each Of her numerous OIL
springs, with a short history of each of
the latter thrown in, she, upon the ap-
pearance OF the second bottle, naturally
and easily drifted to those OF her neigh
bors-to the palmy days of the camp, and
nnally to It's greatest unsoIved mystery
the murder of Hi Little.
Who Hi Little was, or whence be
came, she did not pretend to know: but
that he had arrived at the camp in the
early tiftieS; that he had lived there. toiIed
there. struck 1t rich there and finally
died there, she could and did positively
ahrm. Hls was retiring disposition,
and while he would occasionally drop
in" Of an evening for a chat and a dron
from the black bottle-the time Eeing
shortly after the demise of her first la
mented, who died glOriously-With his
boots on-he was never known to cjrcu-
late among the conYivial souls who fre-
quented the guided palaces and dance
houses, spending, during the night, the
ounce of dust they had extracted, while
the light lasted. lie was known to have
taken out several hundred ounces after
his luck" set in, and as a very limited
amount OF the same found its way into
the strong box of the rubicund little
Israellte who did the principal exchange
business Tor the camp, it was generally
believed that the major part was Sc
creted somewhere in the vicinity of his
shanty. Others thought that mother
earth was his banker, and that he buried
the days gain in some spot best known
to himself.
That as it might be, of one thing she
was morally certain. one bright June
morning Iii Little was found in his
shanty dead, his throat cut from ear to
ear, the shanty turned inside out, and
that was all.
Law and order occupied but a small
corner In the minds Of the men of Null
len Bar III those days, and the revolving
murder OF Hi Little soon became to
some a memory only, and was, by 9TH
ers, totally forgotten. Whether the muir
derer secured the dust, which was evil
dently his sole aim, was never known:
but Tor many days after, when a CLAW
bedecked pilgrim chanced to turn in a
Gag somewhat heavier than usual. the
buyer was expected to facetiously OBJ
serve that he "reckoned'' the dust in
question had been captured during the
raid upon Hi Little's shanUw The OBJ
servation never failed to elicit an uproari-
Gus laugh on general principles, and
those present would insist that the
proper moment had arrived for the
drinks to circulate at the Expense of the
clay-covered pilgrim.
&.
return no more, and with it went most of
the population. a number OF the smaller
buildings were taken possession OF, rent
Tree, by Cinnamon, one of whom took up
ms quarters IN the shauty formerly occu-
pied by Hi Little. y few DAYS passed.
and 1t was found that the ramshackle old
building was once more tenantless. In
quiry being set on foot it transpired that
Lee Hong, that being the Chinaman's
name, had spent one very bad night
there. Something had, he asserted, en-
tered the shanty unbidden, and taken
various liberties with him, such as
t"ltchlng his queue, groaning in his ear,
making night hldeous and life burden
generally. The next night he had kept
watch with his candle burning, and be-
lore dawn had moved out, bag and bag
gage What Lee Hong saw, heard
or felt, was never known; but it came to
be whispered by the few remaining
whites that the shanty was haunted. and
that the 'spook" of Hi Little held High
Court at the old stand.
Never since that time had the shanty
been inhabited. Occasionally, however.
some venturesome body would muster
up courage to pass part of night in the
old shell, but they invariably turned UP
IN The morning with a face as long as a
turnpike, and had never been known to
dlyulge what transpired.
And here ended the second bottle. and
with 1t the landlady's account of the mys-
terry that still surrounded the shanty once
occupied by Hi Little. Before taking her
leave she lntlmated that. should | care to
pas night IN the shanty, she would be
pleased to dispatch Washington Suffer-
third son by her second lamented-in
quest of Mr.. Blakft, whom, she assured
me, was not only agentleman of courage,
put nlled to the brim with good. crisn
stories and laughable incidents, and see
II he were at liberty, and was of mind