Iron County register., 1903-12-17

siah Godbolt, and as he toiled after |
Barclay along the trail, winding I'D |
hillsides and around little peal-s, some |
times under trees and Usually through |
dense chemise, he asked: Twill 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 six-Ihooter handy, ought to
be able to bluff off half-breed, any
way"
1t was while they were cooking sup
per in 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 coun-
ty. Barclay told Josiah that the half
breed had shot at many men in va
rious fights, had stabbed one or two,
and bore the record of his encounters
in scars over his body and long knife
mark across his left cheek. "He served
term in San Quentin" went on Bar
clay, ruminating. "It 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 overtake
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? 1t was by the shine Of
his eyes; they were just like an ami
mails. People say it's due to the fact
that a wildcat crawled into his
mothers cabin one night not long be-
fore he was born"
1t 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-breeds no
tice and tack up their own as noise
lessly as possible. Then he was to
stand guard beside the sign of their
possession until morning Pete would
do the same on the other claim.
"And what if somebody comes
snorting around here and wants to
clean me out?" asked Josiah.
"Well, the law gives man the right
to defend his property in the certain
est way he knows how, and that's my
best gun you've got in your belt there"
replied 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 te-
dious 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
providers by striking light For
the same reason he checked half-in-
voluntary 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 breed, who would own the
| very ground upon which he was sit
| ting for more than two hours to come.
Supposing Henry Flatfoot should take
a notion to visit the claim while it
still belonged to him? Who would be
| the intruder then, and on whose side
would the law be? Josiah moved his
big foot, and the cracking of twig
beneath it startled him and set his
heart to beating.
The darkness was so intense that
Josiah 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 comfortable
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 treed and the axes
could be swung to fell the perch, but
he had not supposed that night, when
neither snow nor rain was railing,
could be as dark as this. Clouds hid
every star. In shifting his position
he was delighted to discover a glow
worm. He seized the insect and, draw
ing up his cowhide shoes, smeared
| 1. tnn nf
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 II o'clock. If Henry
Flatfoot were coming to try to save his
claims he would arrive during the next
hour. Josiah tried to keep thoughts
of the desperate Indian out of his mind.
The night had been very still. Sudden
ly the brush cracked slightly. Josiah
found when all was silent again that
he had unconsciously risen to his feet
and was supporting himself with one
hand against the tree while in the
other he gripped his revolver. 1t was
only rabbit moving in the chemise,
of course. He restored the weapon to
its place and sank down again. After
time sound in the brush off to the
other side set him a-quiver again, but
he convinced himself that only a toad
could make such a wee noise, though
it had sounded loud enough at first
When strange night bird cried out
he did nlt move or touch his gun, and
he told himself that he had oanished
his sillt fears The night was cold
hut som show he did not feel the chill