The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-12-17
How a Plucky Girl of Years Ago
Prevented Robbery.
SHE SAVED HER HUSBAND
An Incident OF Horse Gulch, Twenty
Miles From Butte, Which
Happened in the Early
Days.

them just enough gold dust to prove
that 1t was no-good proposition. The
bars. rims and the channel had been
tried and found wanting. Johns part
ner was his bride of year. They were
married in Missouri and the long
honeymoon was across the plains via
the mule-train route. They left home
and friends amid a shower of con-
gratulations. John was an Industrious
farmer and had accumulated a few
hundred dollars by thrift, econ
omy and energy. His wife was of the
truly noble type of woman. She readi-
ly consented to the plan of coming to
Montana with her young husband,
where they should try their luck at
mining. She looked forward to the
journey and the little home in the
mountains, and it all seemed grand.
She would return with her husband
some day and surprise her parents and
friends by displaying great sacks of
gold dust. John, encouraged by his
wife's ready consent, was hopeful of
success.
They pitched their tent in the mining
gulch in which a dozen or more crews
of men worked in the placers. Johns
claim adjoined one which had yielded
much gold. But he was not so lucky
as his neighbprs We're. His young wife
assisted him in many ways about the
mine. Sometimes she would go down
the shaft and fill the bucket, which
John hoisted and dumped into the
sluice box. She helped him saw the
tagging timbers and she did the house
work. Being ambitious, she fastened
her household duties to completion so
that she might go down to the shaft
and help her husband.
Once or twice week they would
clean up" and the results We're dis
couraging-only a little gold was taken
from the boxes. Other shafts were
sunk with success unvarying; the gold
wasn't there and John was sore at
heart. His wife encouraged him to per-
sist, but the young husband advised
move to another camp. Continued re-
verses preyed upon the husbands mind.
His Missouri dreams had failed to ma
teralize. After all, he meditated, Why
did he leave the farm? His neighbors
were continually singing the praises of
their good fortune, and this grated on
his senses. His was an unbroken sue
cession of i'll reports-he could do moth
ing. His savings from the wages on
the farm were disappearing through the
door of the grocery store. 1t was late
in the fall and the outlook was dismal.
One night John failed to come home
to his supper. That was the first straw
to the heap which finally burdened the
cares of a loving. constant wife. sup
per had been ready for an hour. The
wife had been down to the shaft and
there found no husband. He had evil
IDENTIFY quit work some hours before.
She had called on some of the neigh
bors and they had not seen her hus-
band that day. She imagined all sorts
of dire things but did not guess cor
rectly. Her long acquaintance of John
had never once told her that he was
faithless She feared most of all that
he had been kidnapped by some one VINO
lived in the gulch.
Darkness came on time, but John was
tardy. The little wife placed candle
in the window and then she sat down
by the table and imagined many more
strange and terrible things.
Distant sounds of mems voices reused
her and she ran to the door and peered
out into the darkness. Johns voice
was detected by her keen ears There
was another and strange voice. But
why was John so talkative? He seemed
to be delighted, for he laughed heartily.
Could he have found large nugget and
taken it down to the camp and sold 1t?
Surely he brought good news to his pa
tiently waiting wife. Her heart throb-
bling as only a glad heart can, she
turned about closed the door and STIR
red the Goals in the stove. She sat
about warming up his overdue din
ner. 1t was now time for her husband
to be at the door, so she opened it and
stepped out.
No voice was heard. Could it all
have been imagination? She was sure
it was her Johns voice. Still no SOUND
was heard. With faint heart she
turned to go into the house again.
when she once more heard the voice OF
her husband
+. pete I wouldn't do 1t at all. but
I'm broke and must have the money.
were the words which startled the
young wife. John and the stranger
were holding a consultation a short
distance around the corner of the cabin.
It was John who spoke, and his wife,
perhaps suspecting, probably only Curl
Gus, tiptoed to the corner of the cabin
and peeped around in the direction
whence the sound of voices came.
Il tell you, john" said the stranger,
Il saw them fellers Clean up $4,000 in
one day last week. and they don't
clean up every day--they didn't to-day
and I heard one Of them tell the bar
tender that they wouldn't clean up till
Wednesday night. We must do it to-
morrow night. There's a few thous-
and apiece in it for US
How about suspicions?" John sug-
gested.
Let 'em suspect. They will never
know. What do you say?"
"I'll be there at o'clock to meet you.
I say, I wouldn't do it, but I must have
money"
The men separated, and the little
wife, full of miserable forbodings Of
evil ran into the house and threw her.
self upon the bed and wept the bitter
est tears of sorrow, sorrow over the
condition of the family exchequer, sor-
row for the sudden change in her hus-
bands manner.
"Smatter, dear, crying cause I'm late
to supper? Don't mind, I went down
to the camp and filled up on whiskey,
We don't care, do We? Well make the
old mine pay all right"
The young wife arose and went over
to her husband and placed her arms
around his neck
John She spoke with an air OF
determination and resolution quite for
eign to Johns previous observation OF
her Il will consent. We Will leave
this claim in the mornins. You and !
will go to some other camp. You are