, 1897-10-30
OLD CONSEQUENCES CLOSE GALL.

Iced it for the past twenty years." said
ne old Comstocker, has at times what
You may call Us excllements. Players
out there are likely to carry guns and
use them. OF course first and last, I've
seen a To- o. Shooting, and dome a lIttle
oul of the game. But it wasn't a shoot
ing affair that came the nearest doing
for me.
at was when they were taking Out
carloads os bullion on theComsuock and
every game in Gown was running three
eight-hour SHIFTS of dealers and look
CW-s, that a young German came up
against "A game | was dealing. He lost.
He came back several times, and so l
asked same questions from men who
would know, and they TOLD me he was
ar assayer employed by the bonanza
mines. He was working in the assay
shop OK the mills, MOI the mines, and as
| knew he could get way With abou;
AL The bullion he wanted and not be
checked in it lor a month or two, any,
way, l didn't want his trade. l told him
50 one day when l me him outside the
game, and he went clear crazy mad. He
wanted TO fight me with swords. like
they do, l was told, in the foreign parts
school where he was educated. l just
pushed HIM away, and told him l was
acting Cor his good, and went home, just
having gone off watch.
There is no use telling you gentle
men how a man will stidk to a faro table
when he wins. II 'rhey only knew
enough to quit! Well, when l went on
watch again, there was the German-
Harker WAS his name-playing. and he
chechs-he had none smaller. He was
thousands ahead of the game when l
book the box, and, OF course. l couldn't
tell him TO quit. 1t would look like the
game had thrown up its tail. So he
played on, sneering at me a good deal,
which We have to take that sort OF thing
easy, OF course.
Then he began to lose. He played
in all he was TO the good and more than
A thousand OF his own money. He went
broke, and when he left the table he
was crazy again, and said he deserved
TO lose Tor being such a fooi as to play
after ia taken the box. o. course il a
sane man had accused me OF noc playing
level there would have been a emark or
two from my side OF the table, but I al.
lowed it to go as it hay. he not being re.
spons!ble.
Il was morally certain thai Hark was
.apping the bullion as Il passed through
ihe assay office, but " wasn't my game
20 tell stories. and l didn't, contenting
myself with giving orders that he was
not 10 he let into the game again. They
told me he swore revenge for that
1T was about a week later that a
friend Of mine came up from the Bay
meaning San Francisco-and OF course
I took him through The mines, which was
the regular thing to do. We went down
the Ophir shaft. and got of at a station
several hundred feet above the lowest
workings, on a station where there were
some workings that visitors are always
taken TO. When we left the Gag and
stepped or she station, l noticed several
men there who were mo- working, but
the light was too dim for me to see any
OF them plainly, and for that matter I
didn't think about the others, when the
man who was to guide US came up and
started of with us on a drift to the
south I did notice that one Of the 9TH
er men followed Us. but 1T meant moth
ing to me, and perhaps would not II I
had known that it was Harker. 1 knew
he visited the underground workings a
great deal.
We'll, we were stumbling and slip.
ping along the hot. wet DRIFT, the guide
first, my friend second. and l third,
when suddenly my candle was knocked
out Of my hand. I might have hit my
hand against a timber or "a bit OF broken
logging from the side, but Whatever 1t
was gave it a rap, knocked the candle
down. and It spIashed in the wafer be,
tween the sill timbers at my feet. l
stopped to pick it up and It was some
time before I found 1t. When I straight.
ened up I was in perfect darkness, for
my friends must nave turned of at a
cross-cut, and the man who was follow,
ing had either passed on or turned on
back o: me. I recalled then that I had
missed the glimmer OF his candle for
some time.
well, it wasn't just the pleasantest
game in the world to be up against, for
the dark was not like other dark; It was
'hick, black, close dark. I fooled around
N my pockets for a match for some time,
until remembered tsAk 1 was wearing