Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-12-26

| to pay big for somebody to go up the
hill with him tonight and keep some
old claim or other from being jumped"
The remark was not lost upon Josiah
Godbolt, and as he toiled after Barclay
along the trail, winding UP hillsides
and around little peaks, sometimes I'M
der trees and usually through dense
chemise, he asked: "Will this Flatfoot
party try to interfere with us tonight,
do you reckon?"
You'd better save your wind to get
up these hills, instead of wasting it
asking questions" answered old Pete;
"and besides, a pine tree, such as you
be, with a six-shooter handy, ought to
be able to bluff off a half-breed, any
way"
1t was while they were cooking sup
per in a secluded spot in the ravine,
just below the first Of the claims they
had come to operate upon that night,
that Josiah learned more Of Henry
Flatfoot 1t would seem that he must
be the boss bad citizen Of Shasta
County Barclay told Josiah that the
|
various fights, had stabbed one or two,
and be the record of his encounters
in scars over his body and a long knife
mark across his left cheek. "He served
term in San Quentin" went on Bar
clay, Illuminating. ut was after he
tried to hold up the Bieber stage, up
yon way, and was shot in the shoulder.
They chased him for five days. He
was so near petered out that he even
threw away his gun, or some of them
wouldn't have been so hot to oyertake
him. AT last they caught him in deep
cave on the McCloud, and how do you
s'pose they knew he was back in the
dark hole? It was by the shine of his
eyes; they were just like an animals"
It was very dark in the hills at nine
o'clock. At that hour Pete Barclay
| stationed Josiah Godbolt beside the
scrub-oak upon which Henry Flatfoot's
| location Of the claim was posted, with
the instruction that when he could feel
both hands Of his big silver watch,
! from which the crystal had been re-
moved, pointing straight upward, he
was to tear down the half-breed's no.
tice and tack up their own as noiseless-
~ as possible. Then he was to stand
guard beside the sign Of their posses
sion until morning. Pete would do the
same on the other claim.
"And what if somebody comes snort
ing around here and wants to clean me
out?" asked Josiah.
"Well, the law gives a man the right
to defend his property in the certainest
way he knows how, and that's my best
gun you've got in your belt there" re-
piled Pete, as he felt his way into the
little trail which led to the other claim,
half mile away over the hill.
Josiah found his vigil growing tedi-
GUS rapidly. He feared to move about
in the darkness, lest he should lose the
tree, and he had been advised not to
disclose his presence to chance prowl-
ers by striking a light. For the same
reason he checked a half-invOluntary
impulse to whistle. He slid to the
ground with his back against the tree,
and occupied himself with thinking
over all he had heard about the half
breed, who would own the very ground
upon which he was sitting for more
than two hours to come. Supposing
Henry F1atfoot should take a notion to
visit the claim while it still belonged
to him? Who would be the intruder
them and on whose side would the law
be? Josiah moved his big foot, and the
cracking Of a twig beneath it startled
him and set his heart to beating.
The darkness was so intense that Jo-
siah could see as little with his eyes
open as with them shut. He could
not see the hand on his crooked-up
knee, and he could not see his right
hand, which, somehow, seemed COM
Portable only when it rested upon the
butt Of the revolver swung loosely in
his leather belt. Many the night when
he had followed the dogs at a run in
the bottoms along the Mississippi until
the 'possum was freed and the axes
could be swung to fell the perch, but
he had not supposed that night, when
neither snow nor rain was falling,
could be as dark as this. Clouds hid
every star In shifting his position he
was delighted to discover glow
worm. He seized the insect, and draw
ing up his cowhide shoes, smeared
PHOSPHORUS on the toe Of each. He
could now follow the motion of his
feet when he moved them, and he felt
more collected.
With limbs numb from sitting so
long in this posture, Josiah pulled out
his watch in haste. Surely it was al
ready past midnight. The long hand
was undoubtedly pointing straight up,
but an angle separated the short hand
from It. It was eleven o'clock. If
Henry Flatfoot were coming to try to
save his claims he would arrive during