The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-09-06
A MILLIONAIRE FOR A DAY.
N,yada Bonanza Protected By Grinning Skeletons
and SpOOkS

Sitiily WHICH ne at ONCE put Vlir JILL
of us pretending that our limited
of the Chinese language pre- |
vented us from comprehendia1g the We
hement oTatcrical and pantomirnic dis
play carried on by Mr. Sing Lee. the
burden of which doubtless contained q
protest on the part of the gentleman
from the Flowery Kingdom, based on
the statement that he had some sort of
a waaherman's mortgage or lien on the
[ had heard some vague stories from
the Piute Indians about an old mill
and a mine that had been worked in a
lone mountain some 40 miles away in
the Whitehead range, and on the very
next day after Captain Lynch left my
cabin [ started across the desert in
search of my property. 1 had no diff
Guilty in finding the lone mountain, and
very soon discovered that Captain
Lynch had not misrepresented the
quartz lead, and 1 began looking
around for the mill. There was a trail
leading obliquely down the side of the
distance to a point from which I easily
saw the smoke stack Of the mill about
half a mile away Mounting my horse
I galloped across the fat and soon
refined him up near the door of a lit
tie cabin, 1t was q lonesome looking
place. and. as I thought at the time.
haunted by awful silence. l almost eX-
pected some one to come out and ask
me to dismount- I could hardly real
ize that ten years had passed since the
terrible Piutes had slaughtered the
miners. A cart loaded with ore was
standing by the dump and a great pile
Of quartz in rotten sacks was lying in
heap in the platform near the bat
terry. The first thought that flashed
across my mind was that possibly other
parties had been operating the mill
since the massacre of Lynch's people
! hitched my horse and threw open the
door of the cabin and the next moment
would have closed it if had possessed
the mower TO move. A skeleton clothed
in rags, the dried yellow skin looking
like parchment clinging to it in many
places, was lying in the middle of the
floor The white skull, grinning Szhite
teeth and one arm sticking out from
the rotten sleeve caught my eyes first
and somehow I expected the thing to
jump up and hold out it's bony hands
l backed away and sat down on q
sack Of ore and tried to summon lit
tie courage. While STOPPING over to
strike a match to light my pipe
caught glimpse of something white
inside of the engine room. After a mo-
the door and peeped inside after the
manner of q man who is looking for an
armed bandit. and I saw something
that frightened me as much as IF q
robber had stepped from behind the
boiler. Another skeleton was lying in
front Of the furnace. The man had
been shot in the forehead The hole
that the bullet had made was plain to
be seen, and l realized at q glance that
ff1n Fo11
the fact that a little hair was clinging
to the lower part Of the skull, while
there was none on the top of it.
was ashamed OF my timidity, and max
ing q desperate effort to appear cour-
ageous and regain my self respect, ]
{ lit my pipe and walked through the
engine room. Behind the building ]
found two more skeletons. I could ms
help walking with great caution and
occasionally peeping around corners
and looking back over my shoulder, fol
| felt as if I expected to see some one
step out in front of me every moment
When I heard my horse snort jumped
as if I had been stung, and ran out
instantly and looked around wonder
ing whether the animal had seen any
( thing or not. I passed back through the
engine room and noticed a little stone
! pipe half filed with tobacco, two o.
! three matches by the side of y. lyins
J on a projection over the fire box. no
! ticed that the pockets of the engineer
/ we're turned wrong side out. I passed
/ along by the battery where | saw an
other skeleton all in a heap, with the
( skull split wide open. 1 thought oItht
manner of this poor fellow death. If
! had tried to hide AID some big rec
I devil had peeped over and saw hin
| eroushlnG there, and then with q say
| age whoop he drove the Ratchet int
| the shiyering mans head. I stopped a
1 the sluice box, and taking out my knit,
I ralsed UP on the point of the blad,
a considerable quantity Of pure gold
! Somehow this increased my courage
/ took an envelope from my pocket anC
/ gathered at least an ounce of gold dus
in q few minutes. I stood Zip and Iooket
| over the mountain and 1 thought O
Monte Christie exclaiming 1.-THE worlt
/ is minei" Il believe" said 1, that
am richer than Dumas made his fay
! orite hero"
/ had somewhat regained my self pos
! session and l determined to go bacl
and look into the cabin. An old trunl
was wide open. The tray was hal
filed with letters and old papers. /
few articles were scattered over tn
floor. A few articles of wearing ap
parel were hanging against the wall
There we're pots and pans on the stove
[ lifted the lid from one of these an
saw potatoes and a bone inside Ha
it not been for the skeleton at my fee
[ could not have realized that te
years had passed since any mortal ma
had stood on that floor In that eli
mate it never rains and nothing de
Gays. Everything looked as if the mi
had been in operation yesterday
t'Well,'' said L, L feel q little like
was robibng the dead, but. when
come back 1 will give the bores Of tn
poor fellows decent burial, and I wi
do more if I should ever meet one G
their relatives. I mounted my hors
and started for Virginia City. 1870 mile
> away, in search of miners and SUP
plies. Bonenzas were in my head. an
I forgot the noble animal was not mad
of iron He fell dead under the saddl
at Sutro's tunnel six miles from Vii
ginia City Impatiently I stropped til
carcass of the saddle aud bride, an
started ahead on foot. BY midnight
had secured an engineer and six mir
ers. AT daylight ! was engaged i
loading supplies into two wagons
had engaged to transport everythin
across the desert. We were rattlin
along down six-nlile canyon before til
: sun was shining in the valley. M
men were on the wagons in the har
piest Imaginable frame of mind, viii
was mounted on a little mustanj
!. Impatient and ready to burst wit
dreams of bonanZas and millions "
made the trip in three days and O
the last night eamped within a fe
miles of the mine. Early on the fourt
| morning we we're on the ground, an
soon the engineer and his assistal
! were busy examining the machiner