The San Francisco call., 1898-05-29

of firnness than intelligence. A rather high forehead, a Roman nose, droop- ing mouth with a thin gray mustache partly concealing it, and a head of white hair made up his physio Tnomy. One hand lay on top of the cover, partly closed. as if clutching at some thing. The other was concealed be- meath the quilt. The face was weather beaten and freckled, and the visible hand was scratched and bruised.
 Hes not asleep" said the nurse. "If you want to speak to him go right ahead"
 Hearing these words old man Shoots opened his eyes and looked about blankly Then he motioned for me to come near.
 Have you anything good in your pocket?" he almost gasped, as I bent over him.
 What do you mean?" I asked.
 "Oh, you know we'll enough" he snapped, as he turned over on his pill low and refused to further enlighten me as to what he meant by something
 
 much more vigorous than l had ex- pected after seeing his pallid face on the pillow.
 bornly silent.
 T am going out to the mine to see your partner" I said, after a number of efforts.
 ''Tell him I want to see him." said all b{ tn fO- day"
 You fellows have a pretty good mine out there" I ventured.
 Yes" replied the old man. She's pretty good.'' I suppose"
 "Yes, quite a lot. And there's lots more there. But you have to know how to find it, the old man replied.
 By degrees at last I managed to get a continuous story out of him. But in doing so he made several statements that he afterward modified or denied. On things pertaining to the mine he made contradictory statements. appa- rently not willing to have the real facts known. In the course of his story he said that he had not made a cent out of his mine; then he would say that there was plenty of gold there. He said he just worked it so as to have some thing to do and have a home of his own.
 Its a nice place to live out there in the grove, where you can hear the wind singing through the trees,'' he said, wearily, and he looked as if he wished himself out there again.
 Briefly Shoots story was to the eff feet that he was born in Kentucky Il years ago. At one time in the course of his narrative he thought he had been born in England, but finally con- cluded that 1t was Kentucky.
 At any rate, after having been mar ried twice he came from his native State to California during the gold ex- citement and made one or two fortunes, which he lost.
 One day about twenty years ago he was out hunting along the Cliff House beach, where he struck a patch of black sand. He thought 1t looked as if 1t might contain gold, and he had some of 1t assayed. The returns showed that he had stumbled on a pocket of the precious metal That solitary pocket yielded him fortune. He then began  with poor success.
 It then struck him that the gold must come from the hills beyond, and he be- gan prospecting back until he struck his mine.
 Then he built a house and made him. self a home, where he lived until the other day, when his sickness compelled his removal to the County Hos ital.
 But I wish you'd go out and tell my partner to come and see me. Tell him to bring me something" the old man called after.
 Out in the vicinity of the mining camp I found the neighbors greatly divided in their opinion as to whether any gold was ever taken out of the mine on the hilltop.
 "Yeu bet they made money" said one. Haven't I seen 'em spend it."
 They never made a bean,' said an- other
 They're a couple of beggars, said a third, while fourth wanted to organ ize an expedition to go and dig for buried treasure, it being his opinion that they had sack hidden some where"
 From all that could be learned it is only about three years since it became known that there was a mine on the hilltop. It was thought that Shoots and his partner were simply a couple of cranks who chose that method of living. And when 1t became known that the men were working a gold mine many of the neighbors thought 1t a