Arizona republican., 1898-10-01
THE OLD
 SILVER TRAIL.
BY MARY E. STICKNEY.
Continued from Yesterday.)


 eff YOU don't-Heaven help us." ejac- rlated the other with disheartened fervor. News of Neirs disappearance had by this time become noised about the street, stirring up such excitement as had not been known in Orodelphia for many a day That he should volun- tarily absent himself or such an ocea- sion seemed almost out of the ques- tion; but there were q few who found the most reasonable solution of the mystery in the beer which Neil was reported to have drunk in the Tom town saloon the evening before, the nischievous character of the liquors dispensed in that establishment being vouehed for Ey many of sorry eXperi- ences. Others leaned to the opinion, expressed in more cautious tones, that Col. Randolph Meredith, if he would. might have told somewhat of his ad- yersary's whereabouts, while a smaller number, yet more chary of expressing their minds, directed suspicion toward the Miners union. The theory of acci- dent through any inadvertence on his own part was generally dismissed as untenable, Harvey Neil being credited with abundant capacity for taking care of himself under all ordinary circum- stances: while even more rreposterous appeared the suggestion hazarded by one or two excited imaginations that tho young man, overwhelmed by sense of defeat at finding his principal wit ness flown, had simply "thrcwn up the sponge and remained away from court Of his own accord. Not theory was advanced which might not be beaten down by another, that in turn to be proved equally unstable; but that there must have been foul play of scne sort was generally accepted.
 When court convened again a two o'clock there were still no tidings of the missing man, ard Donald Bartels, never more jelly calm, began his un equal contest in the spirit Of Travis at 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 particuiarity the Mascot lode, its dip and trend, the width be- tween foot and hanging wall and the character of it's ore. He waxe] elo- l Qucnt in the story of Harvey Neil's lcng time of toll on the bleak hillside. l through storm and sunshine, summer and winter, handicapped by poverty and even mere by lis Loyish inexperi- eEce, bravely keeping on even when at times scarce so 1.luch as {. slice of bacon l remained between hin and starvation. So pathetic WIS his word picture of this weary time of working and waiting | that q couple of mini E:en cn the jury, l who had perhaps suffered similar ex- i periences in that same gambling game With nature, were visibly affected. their l faces brightening sympathet;callyw when | the speaker went on to tell of the rich strike wEich at last had promised mete reward for all that had gone before Skillfully the clever speaker skinned the surface of the troublous times with inc miners afterward, paying shrcwd tribute to the avowod aims of the union while at the same time delcately up- ho.ding the man who would not dis charge q faithful and efficient work ] man at the behest of any man, prefer { ring to run the gauntlet of rccrimina- 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 it's evil eye upon a neighhor's pros perity, showing how the Grub stake mine had been relocated, the trend of it's side lines so changed that a larger section of the Mascot's rich territory might be covered by the | intersection of the two lodcs-if it could be said that there were two lodes For he would undertake to prove, the 1 speaker went on to declare, that never lad any mineral been discovered in this so-called Grubstal,e lode until after this relocation; they would show that the present management of the Grubstak,, mine, mining men of acknowledged skill and experience, had sunk a shaft upon ground revealing no smallest vein
 
 experiment. of which the merest tvro in mining could scarcely be guilty without the set purpose which became apparent when from that unprounising shaft drift went creeping out to the westward, a drift which to the un- initiated must have seemed no less des- titute of rational design than the work ar the outset, since it followed no lead the method in which madness only be- coming clear when that drift cut into tiny fault or Assure which had pre- viously been uncovered in the Mascot hanging wall. Then it was that the Glubstake claimed true Assure vein n-aking turn at this point into the Mascots rich ore body, although even then they had not ventured to reveal : their purpose by cutting into the Mascot workings, preferring rather to