The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-01-08

been squanderin', then? Him lashin'
money round like it growed on bushes,
an me slavin' an slavin' to save q
penny. It's outrage, it"
Here the poor woman burst into
tears; all the children, as usual, Joined
in the doleful chorus, and Caspar, al.
ways evasive of trouble, took his hat
and strolled over to the Gem to watch
a game of stud poker. 1t was mid
night when he got into his room and
found that Jake wasn't in bed.
Nanny" he bawled, "Jake's
| gone"
Let him CO." piped the wife from
the next room; hell sit hongry fore
he goes fur"
The boy didn't come home to break
fast, however. Noon passed without
word Of him, and by dark the fretful
but affectionate Mrs. Miehle was wor-
| ried. Caspar started out to look for
| his son, and he did make few inquir
| les en- route to the Gem, but there he
fingered till the game got warm" and
| so forgot poor Jake. Meanwhile the
! boys mother had secured the town for
him. She had found out about the ru-
bies. and remorse for the unmerited
trouncing she had given him intensi-
fed her grief over his departure. She
could hardly wait for the sleepless
night to pass, the second of his alb
sence. and then she went to the mar
shall and enlisted his services. On Sat-
urday the Clarion had in it "a piece"
about the disappearance Of Jake
Miehle, and half the townsfolk spent
Sunday in the hills looking for him.
On Monday the Mayor offered a re-
ward Of $50 for information leading
to the safe return" ETC., and Tuesday
morning q party of searchers, headed
by the carpenter and equipped with
provisions for q week, set forth into
mountains to look for Jake.
Seven miles as the crow flies from
Old Town and twenty by the trail that
scars the mountain sides, they saw
Jake perched high above the beetling
canon on a narrow shelf Of red and
yellow rock. From their station be-
low the searchers roared his name, but
the chorus of their voices did not move
him.
Come down here t'yer daddy, you
young imp" shrieked Caspar, but the
little brown head did not move, and
the men with Caspar held him back
as he started to scale the rock.
LET the marshal git him." they sug-
gested, and the looks they cast upon
the father were all pity.
The marshal clambered alone to
Jake's dizzy aerie. The little fellow
was sitting in a crevice in the rocks
with his back against the trunk of a
scrub oak tree. The greasy cap was
pulled over his face, blackberry stains
were on his sunken cheeks, and his
ragged shirt and overalls hung in rib
bons to his emaciated body. His
skinny, brown fists were clinched and
crossed on his lap and his body was as
motionless as the rock upon which he
sat.
The marshal tenderly lifted away the
cap and gently shook the bony shoul-
der.
Come, Jakey, are you alive?"
The sunken eyes slowly opened, and
the boy stared weakly round. Then he
looked down at his hands and IN
clinched them. In each lay a nugget
as big as walnut, and when he looked
back at the marshal he smiled feebly
and said:
Free gold. amt it?"
In a delirium of toy the big officer
howled like q Comanche at his COM
rades. They literally fell up the face
of the rock
why didn't you come home?" roared
Caspar, laughing and crying by turns.
Tried it, daddy, but was skeered
I'd lose the mine" said the lad. Il
found them mug ggets in this hole, and I
thought I'd better set here till you
comek'
He ras sitting in true fssure that
prove the opening of the best mine in
Rout County, and the Mlehles have
never one a days hard work since
John H. Raftery, in the Chicago Rec
ord-Herald.