Evening journal., 1899-07-22

eyes beamed with such steady. gentle
kindliness
Time slips by rapidly in the hills.
lou get up at dayliglis and cook break,
fast; you carry water up TO your sfi,fft.
you spend al the morning making a
little hole in the rock with a drill; al
noon a blast; in the afternoon you haul
bucketfuls Of broken rock out with
windlass. The night has come. You
count the days by what you have ac-
complished, and il is little. You rhoos-
ure time by your trips to camp. and
they are few. One morning Peter, in
looking into his little square mirror,
caught sight of a gray hair. He looked
closer. There were many of them.
With sudden great pang he realized
that he was getting TO be an old man. lie
took from the table the miniature of
girl with great gray eyes. He won.
dered if she wns getting TO be an. old
woman. At the thought. Happy Igtti
became another man. He rode TO town
shat very day-over 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-hilis
were covered with them. Between tho
trees figures glanced to and fro, as
patches of red or flashes of light re-
Elected from polished metal. White
claim-stakes sprang, mushroom-lille,i in
thick punches of four. In the casyon
was the CLEAN of fires, the smell Of
wood-smolSe and Of bacon broiling was
in the air; white lean-tos shone nmonr
the bare bushes and ssplings. Horsos
were feeding eagerly on the half-frozen
grasses and the browse OF trees, rails
ing their heads as the creak OF wheels
further down the draw told Of still new
comers.
Peter looked with excited satisfac-
Eon. 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 a price and that he could
grow old happily in n country itself us
old as his distant youth. He wandered
restlessly from one Of his feur claims
10 the other. He told himself that this
time he would make n careful bargain.
The need was imminent in the light OF
this discovery of gray hairs. 1t had
never seemed so before. He began To
forostall difficulties in his mind. II
should be spot cash, nothing else. Peter
! knew Just what his claims were worth.
and he knew what he would get fol
them. The sale should be by deed. lc-
/ gally, this for that Then he would e.
east at once.
He cast in review the technioalities
of mining law. lie had stalxed IN,
claims correctly; he had done the prop
CT Assessment work on each. perlai
it weuid have been better il he ha,
had thsm recorded. At once he mae,
a tour Of his property TO see il ali th,
notices were in place. II had nevcl
occurred TO him before that some on,
might Jump" him. Peter began g
think It might have been wiser to hrv,
brought the purchaser in here quietly
witheut agitatiRg a boom. PerpleSe,
and tqrtured with doubts and anxietios
he STAT ike remainder Of the day i
going. from claim 10 claim.
Il His accustomed aspect Of gentle ipi
passivfty bad left him. His eye becaIh,
shifty and suspicious. His hand.
worked nervously. In his breast tlTei.,
fermcnted an excitement which would
not let him rest even for an instant
Tor Peter realized that this was IN,
last chance. Heretofore he had ma,
the consciousness of youth TO oncour
age him. Failure had meant only de-
lay. Now it meant fnality. There
was left to him no more time. He say
that before he could again dig his shsftl
and blast his tunnels, old age would
have banished his dreams and his hopes
together.
He passed in feverish review the thre,
occasions wherein he had been swim
died. The San Francisco man hat
given him worthless paper, and had re
sold at once. The Denver sharpers ha,
merely taken possession, and had re
fused to pay. The St. Louis man ha,
pretended that the property was no
as represented, and had compromise,
at a ridiculously low figure. Pete
I mlRlL nave AolHAA lht Alliub tlttCeo
fully, but in his great diilidence Of min,
he had been too easily persuaded OF tb
!. Justice of the others position. III
would never be caught so again; bu
these men bewilderod and puzzled hin
always, and he confessed TO himself
great fear Of their unknown wiles. a
the thought that they might cheat hin
in some new way he went into panic
He made another tour Of the claims
1t was now dark. At dawn he wen
over the ground again. He had no
, slept all night, and had eaten nothin
= since the noon Of the preceding day.
I On returning to his cabin, he place
the miniature and the square mHro
side by side on the table, and looked a
them intently for long time. The
he kicked his chair over backward, an
went out to his claims once more. Tn
I, first comers Of the stampeders ha
! finished stalking out, and were no'
wandering about the hills. Peter foun
: a small group Of them on one Of hi