The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1898-02-25
4 CISE or STSPENSE.

We were sitting one night around
our campfire at the head waters of
the Rio Grande, telling stories OF
hunting and mining adventure, when
viii Thompson, an old prospector,
took advantage of d lull in the CONVEX
sation to say:
WAL. I've been skeered in my
time by bars and IujiDs, and I've been
Jumped by Greasers and lost i'll the
snow back here when Fremont was
explorin' but l never jest lost my
senses but wonst,n
How was il you came to lose your
senses, WILL" | asked, for, like the
rest, was anxious to draw the old man
out. now that he seemed to be in Il
talking humOr?
Me and Bill Farlien-any of you
know Bill-NO? Waal. him and ne
was pards over al Mahave when the
Arizona dimond excitement heGaD."
Seeing that lie hesitated again, l
asked:
Wasn't that fraudE"
"The most awfuIlest fraud that the
world ever saw, lnjin agents not eX-
pected. We weren't getting rich very
fast, so Bill he said to me: Eff thar's
diments in Arizona | know the feller
as kin find 'em. Who's that sed /.
For answer Bill laid his hand on his
| bosom.
'Waal. we talked about di!nints SO
much that we got TO dreamiu' about
EN-, and finally we greed to
| fix up our traps and light out.
We had a mule and Il good pros
pectin' outfit, and as our credit warn t
| low al Hardyville we got two months
grub and off we went.
Some of YOU know that country
west of the Moqui land? Yes? WAL,
You'll allow that ther amt nothin'
else like it on top of the airth. It's
waterless, treeless, lifeless and less
everything else that goes to make
| travelin' comfortable and life endura-
| bic.
You talk about canons, sech as
| they have over on the Arkansaw, or
| down har on the Rio Grande, but |
| tell you they are all wheel barrow ruts
compared to them Sits in the ground
up in North Arizona. Why, in places
! one has to look down twice to see the
| bottom:
"Waai, Bill Harden had a notion
| that eff diments was TO be found in Ar
iona, the canon country was the place
for it was full of quartz crystals, and
| them things being often mistaken for
gems why should mt the genuine thing
! be took for quartz crystals:
We Travelled and Travelled, till at
| last we travelled to Il place whar moth
| in but a bird could travel any further,
and thar We went to work, We picked
| up every bit of rock that was shiny,
Till We had bushels of EN- in the camp.
We kept att until the grub was gone,
gone, and then we started back, but the
mule was too weak to carry the di-
| ments, and we was too weak to help
him.
We missed our way coming back,
and the mule went down IA cliff and
was kilt. Waal, we got down to him
and lived on him for a week, and then
we took the brightest of the stones
and started back again. We got
weaker and weaker, and so We kept
unload until we didn't carry two
| pounds apiece.
We kept on after dark one night,
for we was sUierin from wafer.
was ahead feeling my way kinder
keerful, when all Of a sudden | drap.
ped righr over the edge of Il canon
and Bill Harden he came after me and
passed me. ] never could tell how
came to hang on Il projecting rock
| but | did.
When ] could recover from the
shock | called out for my pard, and he
hollered back, his voice coming from
point that seemed mile below
whar all was black as ink.