The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-06-04

in the eye to the Gallaghcr's Daddy.
Well, one night, who should come into
my office but Il young woman. Pretty
as a picture she was, all wet and SILVER
ing, but her mouth was-gummy. Cry?
Cried fit to break her little heart. Mr..
Sniff, she said, was beast-a horrid
little beast; yes, that's what she said.
Sniff had sent for her all the way from
! England, as his clerk and typewriter;
then, when she showed up at the mine.
coolly informed her that he had since
written cOuntermanding the order.
| Wouldn't take her out of the rain! Mad?
I'd have killed the thing, but that, being
midsummer, game was plumb out of
season.
, Pretty? A perfect little witch of a
woman-black hair, black eyes that
snapped, and thin, oval, winsome sort
of face that bowled me right out She
had the cunningest, cutest little ways
! you ever seen, and a real lady, every
Inch. l took her right on my books as
secretary, walked her over to the land
lady at our boarding-sharll, and had a
| CdDllI hNcu up IcSil ulcSS' vi, puC oilO
was ripping clerk-smart as a stock
broker, always busy, eager to learn,
sharp as steel trap with the books.
! She'd take down my letters in short
hand, whisk them off on the typewriter,
| keep the letter-bOok indeXed up to the
minute, run the postage stamps. Why, l
| got so used to her in a week that | barely
took the trouble to sign what she wrote,
much less see if it was correct. Fact is,
| gave over my heart, the keys of the
safe and the books. She ran me, she ran
the office, and, if she liked, she was free
to run the mine. How she did hate the
| Ihing-that horrid, nasty Sniff!
Bit by bit she put me up to the
scheme; little by little she led me on
| just burning to get quits with the
Thing, if only for her sake. At least,
she showed me how | could fairly
knock the stuffing out of the Gallagher's
Daddy.
You see, he'd struck it rich-lit onto
Il bonanza that was the talk of Colorado.
| The Silver Chamber, they called it-a
mass of sulphurets and ruby silver, big
as a church, running 81, 900 ton. 1t was
right at my end of the ledge, within a
| few feet of the end of my third level
drift, which had been rich to the very
edge of my claim.
Grab into it," said the sly little puss.
''Trouble? Never fear. If you've got
the pluck" says she, I'll supply the
brains. Now" says she, "Tll go around
and begin by squaring SMITHS engineer
get around him in jiffy-anS We'll
take such a rise out of old Sniff
that he'll think he's sat down on dyna.
mite"
We bribed SMITHS engineer, who dis.
abled his hosting gear in such way
the mine had to be closed while he sent
down to Denver for skilled hands.
At that little cats instigation, TOOK
some carpenters by night to the Daddy'e
shaft. Lowering men with ropes, we
got three solid brackets fixed 70 the
timbering 40 feet down. Then we
| lowered down a tank of well-tarred
lumber, which fitted nearly in the brack,
cts, and filled up theShaft. Finally, we
put in three feet of water, and stole
away. Next informing the Thing came
sauntering down to the works and when
he looked down the shaft, there was
the blacklist water within few feet of
the top.
''Bai Joave! what beastly shame!"
1t walled. Me mines all full of water!
Come, you men-you beastly engineer
fellah-wig up the pumps."
But the ''beastly engineer fellah'
couldn't wig up the pump" because the
said pump was busted.
Work? How we worked Double
shifts, double time, Sundays, holidays.
hosting out the bonanza sulphurets of
the Gallagher's Daddy. The silver
chamber-why, the names pigwash to
the reality. [ never, in all my mining
experience, saw such a haul. Think
that Sniff petted? Think he found out,
and had deputy sheriffs around my
ears? Not bit of it. The critter went
off fishing; yes, fishing, and was the
laughing stock of Colorado, while 1
hustled.
Ge gods! l was the blindest ass ever
born! Never found it out till I'd worked
the silver cham Der down to the last ton {;
never till the last ounce was consigned
to the smelling company down at Den
yer. l was down there for my holiday,
when | met the manager of the Great
Dinde smelling syndicate, and he
greeted me with regular horse laugh
'Well, Mr.. Philanthropist," says he,
chow goes it?"
"Philanthropists!' What do you
mean?"
why, amt you been working double
shifts for the last three months and con-
signing every blessed dollar of your bull
lion to the credit of the Gallagher's
Daddy?"
you're mad" says /.
"Well, I've been thinking it was you
! who'd gone locoea-unless you've mort
gagged body and soul to Mr.. Sniff"
A light broke in on me. Lets see
the books" l howled, land my letters
Yes, it was the cold, paralyzed truth
I'd been victimized - horribly vic.
timized, by that little she-cat. While
signed letters without glancing at them
she'd written strict orders, from me