Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-04
an ugly savage, tapping the rife that rest
ed In the hollow of his arm.


an ugly savage. tapping the rifle that rest
ed In the hollow of his arm
Caleb Knew n Thing or Two.
NO" the young men who had come out
10 fathom the mysteries Of the old Nor
mons wealth grew suddenly homesick To
the surprise and amazement of his conn
panions. Caleb rose deliberately. walked
over to the savage, and began to kick him
out OF camp. What surprised them stil
more was that the Indian made no show, %,
resistance. but went his wav
rms little incident put away any fear
that might otherwise have broken ire
IIuen-needed rest of the weary voyagers.
ana IN little while they were sie.niny
IKE dead men. But Caleb could NOT slaan
MOI because he had any fear of TN. In
dlans, bit he could not afford II. shortly
aIter midnight he united his two horses
ana LED them away. When out of sight and
nearing OF the camp he STONED open.d
MS panniers and took out eight ready-maae
inoccasins He put one on each of the
eisnt Ieet That went with his two horses
anu stole softly away. In the course of an
hour he found water and camped hut ne
mace no hre. As soon as IL was light ne
sci out on his journey. the mufiied feet of
nus horses making little or no noise. and
leaving tracks in the sand on the selyaP,
OF the desert that looked like Indian tracks
going the other way
The young men slept until the sun was
up and when they awoke looked very
foolish. They found the tracks of Calah.s
horses, and without stopping to make
coHee took the tail. In an hour they lost
II on barren sweep of sandstone and
they never found ii again When they
ndu grown weary OF the search they halted
for breakfast
Like hundreds of others they had ac-
CURED that beastly American habit of
drinking before breakfast and now when
they sought the jug they found n mole from
thelr late leader. 1t was neatly folded and
had one corner caught playfully in the
mouth OF the jug and held there by the
cork.
The Reading interrupted
1T was very brief message. no date
and no signature. but IL was pithy and to
the point Only one of the men had seen
1t, and now his companions called to him
to read Ii. One of the men had paused
with the brown jug thrown above his
curved elbow. his land on the handle and
his mouth stealing to the mouth of ths. tug
as the mouth of a Mexican maiden glides TO
the kiss of her cabaliero AT the very
moment when the man was about 70
READ aloud the old his hops last message
haif dozen Indians jumped into the camp
one OF them took the jug gently from he
bewlldered prospector, smelled IL and took
drink
A very large man. who was extremely
dirty. ugly, pockmarked and generally un-
handsome. kicked the Indian and reached
Tor the jug Before drinking he kicked the
Indian again and swore a him in a blend
ing of Spanish, Indian and bad English.
Manifestly this was the leader.
by the time this important individual
had quenched his thirst dozen Indians
had come into camp. They ate what they
could find. drank all the whisky and signed
10 the white men to get up. When they
were mounted the pockmarked man tapped
his rifle and said 'Namos
The three men, thoroughly frightened,
reiEed their horses down the gulch
when they had left the foothills far
behind them and felt the sun hot on the
back OF their necks. one of them asked
the man who had Caleb's letter to read IT,
Listen, then said the man who was rid
ing in front, and who now held up the
sheet Of white paper. and then he read:
'Adios.' q"