The Monticellonian., 1899-06-23


 Then he commenced sinking" on all four. Working alone he could make about foot of progress day. By win ter he was far enough below ground so that he did not feel the cold. Occa- sionally he would make a short cross cut-that is, a tunnel across the trend of the strata-to see how far it was to the wall; sometimes he would drift that is, tunnel in the direction of the strata-to see how the quality of the lead held out. All this took time. as did
 the timbering and the trips forsupplies. Men in the town called him Happy"
 Peter, because he was always humming a quaint little song, end because his eyes beamed with sud : steady. gentle kindlness.
 Time slips by rapa y in the hills. You get up at daylight and cook break fast; carry water up to your shaft; you ' nd all the morning making a little hole iD the rocl. with drill; at nooP blast; in the afternoon you haul bucEctfuls of broken rock out with a windlass. The night has come. You count the days by what you have ac- complished, and it is little. You meas ure time. by your trips to camp. and
 they ai~'few. One morning Peter, in looking into his little square mirror, caught sight of gray hair. He looked closer. There were I2any of them. With sudden great pang he realized that he was getting to be an old man. He took rom the table the miniature of girl with great gray eyes. He won dered if she was getting to be an old woman. At the thought, Happy Peter became another man. He rode 10 town that very day-oyer the mountains, through the gorges-and showed them what he had found. Then he returned.
 The morning after men came into the lonely gulch. In an hour the side-hills were covered with them. Between the patches of red or flashes of light re- flected from polished metal. White claim-stakes sprang, mushroom-like, in thick punches of four. In the canyon was the gleam of fires, the smell of woodsmol<e and of bacon broiling was in the air; white lean-tos shone among the bare bushes and saplings. Horses were feeding eagerly on the half-frozen grasses and the browse of trees, rais- ing their heads as the creak of wheels further down the draw told of still new corners.
 Peter looked with excited satisfac- tion. This meant prosperity. This meant that on the morrow new town would deserve a place on the map. This meant, above all, that Peters claims would have value, that he could sell them out at price and that he could grow old happily ill q country itself as old as his distant youth. He wandered restlessly from one of his four claims to the other. He told himself that this time he would make careful bargain. The need was imminent in the light of this discovery of gray hairs. It had never seemed so before. He began to forestall difficulties in his mind. It should be spot cash, nothing else. Peter knew just what his claims were worth, and he knew what he would get for them. The sale should be by deed, le- gaily, this for that Then he would go east at once.
 He cast in review the technicalities of mining law. He had staked the claims correctly; he had done the prop er assessment work on each. Perhaps it would have been better if he had had them recorded. At once he made a tour of his property to see if ali the notices were in place. It had never occurred to him before that some one might jump" him. Peter began to think it might have been wiser to have brought the purchaser in here quietly, | without agitating boom. PerpleXed | and tortured with doubts and anNieties, he spent the remainder of the day in going from claim to claim
 His accustomed aspect of gentle inn passivity had left him. His eye became shifty and suspicious His hands | worked nervously In his breast there fermented an excitement which would | not let him rest even for an instant. | For Peter realized that this was the | last chance. Heretofore he had had | the consciousness of youth to eneour- age him. Failure had meGut onlH de 1 lay. Now it meant hnalitN There | was left to him no more time. He saw that before he could again dig his shafts and blast his tunnels, old age would l have hanished his dreams and his hopes 
 He passed in feverish review the three occasions wherein he had been swim dIed. The San Francisco man kad given him worthless paper. and had re- sold al once. The Denver sharpers had merely taken possession, and had re- fused to pay The St. Louis man had pret2nded that the property was not as represented, and had compromised at ridieHlously low figure. Peter might have fought the thing success fully, but in his great ditlidence of mind he had been too easily persuaded of the justice of the others position. He would never be caught so again; but these men bewldered and puzzled him always. and he confessed to himself great fear of their unknown wiles. At the thought that they might cheat him in some new way he went into d panic. He made another tour of the claims It was now dark. At dawn he went over the ground again. He had not slept all night, and had eaten nothing since the noon of the preceding day.
 On returning to his cabin, he placed the miniature and the square mirror side by side on the table, and looked at them intently for long time. Then he kicked his chair over backward, and went out to his claims once more. The first corners of the stanpeders had