The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-13
THE MOTHER VEIN.
BY MAURICE SMILEY.

(Copyright, 1sos, by Daily Story Pub Col old Bill Dugan had struck it at last,- up on Pine creek and the Sis might be-
 come one of tho best mines in the dis | trict. The news flew from mouth to mouth
 in Tincup, and there was great cele- bration at the Double Eagle that night | In the first place we were glad for Bilrs I sake, and hoped that it was mother | vein' at last.
 Then there was Sis herself, for whom I the mine was named. Perhaps the men were more glad on her account than for | any other reason.
 l Where Sis had come from no one had ever knew. She had toddled into camp one day F years before, thin, gangiing 1 little tot of four and calmly annuonced | that she was lost.
 ''No ye ain't, neither" exclaimed Bill. l You're found and I've found ye." Bill adopted her on the spot and she l was now his legal partner. Ali that she l could say at tho time was that her pap l pie had camped near Tincup for the sum- mer and had gone to the postofice. But pappie never came back from the post | office and we knew that she had been deliberately abandoned. | And now. going on IT, she was the | Angel of Tincup." Everybody loved her | and Jack Roberts especially. Nobody knew about me-. for I always kept my 1 heart to myself. Jack was generally sup ! posed to have the inside track. He had | taken Sunday dinner with Bill and Sis | several times and that considered equiv- l alent to securing his claim. And when i he took her to Aspen to see "The Dem 1 yer Express" we felt that his claim was | nafepfod and iny,Ipeva hIe | All this by way of showing that every body in Tincup was glad that old Bill | pugan had struck it at last.
 Don't be too fast. boys" said Bill, | modestly, when he came in from the mine. Tt may be only a pocket after | all. you know hope 1t will pan out | rich for the sake of Sis and Dick. I've sent for Dick and by the time he gets here we will know whether it's pocket or the mother vein.'" Bill had often spoken of his son In the l east. The boy came within the week. bringing with him his wife. the swelleet
 piece of female woman that had ever l struck camp. There were half a dozen women in Tincup, but Belle made them look like jimson weeds beside an Anieri-
 can Beauty rose.
 | Lordi How she did queen it over the boys. She made no pretense of not des- pising them and their rough ways, but | there wasn't a mothers son of them that wouldn't have walked to Aspen and back | for a hairpin for her. if she had only haughtiiy commanded him to do so. | We all tried to like Dick for Blirs sake, but 1t was no go. He was loud and fiashy like his wife.
 Dick was the slickest handler of the pasteboards that ever made miscue- He dealt four queens and then filled a royal flush and after that he didn't play
 any more In Tincup. We didn't tell Bill | the lad had been caught cheating, for Il would have broken his heart.
 In the meantime Bill and were work | ing on the Sis Somehow I got the idea that Bill was holding things back. sort of sizing Dick up, as tt were. and also got the idea that the boy was not bal ancing the scales entirely in his favor in his fathers mind.
 | One day Bill and were working away | in the Sis when all at once Bill staggered into the tunnel and cried to me:
 Come here. Tom. quick!" l I hurried to him and by the light oi | the lamps could sec that beneath the dirt and dust of the mine he was white as a sheet
 'whats the matter. Eili7' asked fir alarm.
 TdThe mother vein," was all he could say.
 The mother veinI I knew what that meant. It meant riches and ease and mansion on Colfax avenue or anywhere else on earth.
 | 'There's a million there, Tom, if there's
 a dollar" said BilI, when he had cooled
 down a bit. Let's go and tell Sis and
 Dick"
 We started toward the mouth of the mine, when I, who was ahead. saw Dick
 and Belle seated on a timber near the
 mouth of the mine.
 "D---n this heaStly hole" we heard Dick growl. "I wonder if 1t will ever par
 out. I'm getting sick of this cursed | place. Bell, I've half mind to chuck
 it."
 Better wait, my dear" said Belle
 mockingly. Papa may strike 1t yet and | then we'll all-observe say all-will be | off for Newport and Coney and all the
 rest. Won't papa enjoy himself on the Bowery and won't he cut an elegant fig
 ure on Fifth avenue?" felt BIIPs hand tremble on my shoul.
 der and I felt that this was the SUI
 preme test for Dick. I waited breathless'
 iy for his reply.
 | 'Srake the governor back east?" he | IduSuSO. GNOI ou yOui liAc. AtS Q AtA NASti'
 out here among these rubes, but or Broadway"
 The cruel laugh with which he ended
 the speech cost Dick Dugan 8 cool mil
 lion.
 '"The lads ashamed of me-" muttereG Bill brokenly. "I knowed 1t, I knowec
 it."
 | I pitied him from the bottom of mS
 heart, but I thought it kinder that hG should know the truth.
 'What's this about Sis?' suddenly ask cd Belle, after a pause. Her voice Wal full of jealousy and suspicion. Dick and Sis! I was thunderstruck What was there between them? Jealous, eh?'' laughed Dick brutally | There was a gratihed vanity in every tone "So' the little wife is jealous of hei devoted husbandf"
 "Oh, cut the sweet talk and answer
 me-" cried the girl fiercely.
 Nothing doing, assure you, my dear. replied Dick. coolly. "sls has few thou sands saved up, she tells me, but that il | not a drop in the bucket to what I ex pect to pull the governor for. At th' l worst we can get Sis's pile and then VI | will go back where the fun is I meal all right by you, Belle. Honest!
 'Remember. no tricks" exclaimed Belle, savageIy, Cor it will be the wors for you The law hasn't any claim or you, but you'd better be on tho squar' with me. You know me. If was youl wife in reality"
 The last words were lost as the tw' moved away, but 1t was the last straw for poor Bill. His son's character stoot
 out in unmistalable colors. He graspet