The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-12-30

| dropped from the caboose of the after.
noon freight train at Copley, and slung
down their packs while they went in
to patronize the bar, which constituted
half the town. The older miner was
| careful to explain to the dispenser of
| refreshments and the loungers in the
| place that he and his companion were
| going to the Balaklala to work. "See-
ing you've got jobs, it amt worth men
| tioning," said the proprietor, "but In
jun Flatfoot, who's a-gambling in the
back room now, says he's willing 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 Jo-
siah Godbolt, and as he toiled after
| Barclay along the trail, winding up
| hillsides and around little peaks, some
times under 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;
land besides, a pine-tree, such as you
be, with a six-shooter 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
rlark across his left cheek. "He served
term in San Quentin" went on Bar
clay, Eliminating. ct was after he
tried to hold up tho Bieber stage, up
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 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-breed's 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.
We'll, 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 a light. For
the same reason he checked half-ip-
| 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 half-breed, who would own the
very ground upon which he was sit
ting for more than two hours to come.
Surprising Henry Flatfoot should take
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 freed and the axes
could be swung to fell the perch, but
he had not supposed that a night, when
neither snow nor rain was falling,
could be as dark as this. Clouds hid
every star. Ia shifting his position
he was delighted to discover a 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