Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1898-01-06
The Old SILVER TRAIL.
BY MARY E. SnCKNEY.
copyright 1896. by J. B. Lippincott Col
CHAPTER HOODWINKED.


When court convened again at two
o'clock there were still no tidings of
the missing man, and Donald Bartels,
never more Jelly calm, began his I'M
equal contest in the spirit of Travis az
the battle of the Alamo. OF words he
must build his only bulwark, talking
against time. He began his address to
the jury with careful description OF the
locations of the two mines, describing
with minute particularly the Mascot
lode, its dip and trend, the width be-
tween foot and hanging wall and the
character of it's ore. He waxed elo-
quent in the story of Harvey Neil's
long time of toll On the bleak hillside,
through storm and sunshine, summer
and winter, handicapped by poverty
and even more by his boyish inexperi-
ence, bravely keeping on even when at
times scarce so much as {. slice of bacon
remained between him and starvation.
So pathetic was his word picture of this
weary time of working and waiting
that couple of mining men on the jury,
who had perhaps suffered similar ex-
periences in that same gambling game
with nature, were visibly affected, their
faces Frightening alphabetically when
TIC SpCdhCu went Oh 10 tell Oh the f1Cn
strike which at last had promised mete
reward for all that had gone before
Sklllfully the clever speaker SKINNED
the surface of the troublous times with
the miners afterward, paying shrewd
tribute to the avowed aims of the union
while at the same time delicateIy up
holding the man who would not dis
charge n faithful and efficient work
man at the behest Of any man, prefer
ring to run the gauntlet of recrimina-
ton and enmity rather than be recreant
to his conception of.an employers duty;
summarizing the whole matter as mere
ly an unfortunate misunderstanding
which, in retrospect, should be consid-
cred really creditable to both sides.
From this he went on to show how the
Mascot vein had developed in richness
with depth until envy had cast
its evil eye upon neighhor's pros
perity, showing how the Grub
stake mine had been relocated, the
trend of its side lines so changed
that a larger section of the Mascot's
rich territory might be covered by the
intersection of the two lodes-if if
could be said that there were two lotles.
For he would undertake to prove, the
speaker went on to declare, that never
lad any mineral been discovered in this
so-called Grubstake lode until after this
relocation; they would show that the
present management of the Grubstake
mine, mining men of acknowledged
skill and experience, had sunk q shaft
upon ground revealing no smallest vein
of mineral, ground utterly barren, and
experiment of which the merest tyro
in mining could scarcely be guilty
without the set purpose which became
apparent when from that unpromising
shaft drift went creeping out to the
westward, drift which to the I'M
initiated must nave seemed no less des-
titute of rational design than the work
AT the outset, since it followed no lead.
the method in which madness only be-
coming clear when that drift cut into
tiny fault or fissure which had pre-
viously been uncovered in the Mascot
hanging wall. Then it was that the
G1ubstake claimed n true fissure vein
p,aking a turn at this point into the
Mascot's rich ore body, although even
then they had not ventured to reveal
their purpose by cutting into the
Mascot workings, preferring rather to
lelve in the wealth they had opened up
beyond, where they might work I'M
detected for the time. They could show
that a man employed as foreman on
the Mascot at the time this small fault
in the hanging wall was uncovered, had
had full direction OF the Grubstake
workings which led to the latter dis
eovery, so-called, q man Influenced no
less by personal enmity toward his late
employer than through zeal for the man
who now paid him wage 70 do such
dirty work. From this he went on to
quote the decision of the supreme court
Of the, United States in the Amy-Silver-
smith case, as determining the extra
lateral rights of the mine owner, ar
guing that even if through ignorance
Or willful blindness to the truth this
fault in the rock which constituted the
Grubstake's only real claim to discov-
cry. could be considered true vein, its
direction, running as it did across the
side lines of the Mascot, effectuaily
barred the Grubstal<e owner OF any
cxtra-lateral rights whatever in that
so-called discovery. In relocating the
claim, plainly the intent had been to
bring the richest portion of the Mascot
territory within the Grubstake side
lines; but nature had been so inconsid-
crate as to put that little slip in the
hanging wall just a few feet too far
toward the east, and thus the Grub
stake drift, for obvious reason. planned
to enter the Mascot territory at such
point as would not intersect the Mascot
workings, had first come into ground