The Cairo bulletin., 1905-07-23
DIAMOND HOOP.
BY HENRY L. KINER.


bod CAST ye, growled the .all man.
He picked up the bit of quartz 10 IRE
1t at the mule.
Then he gave a yell at least four
miles log. Perhaps 1t was 40 miles.
Sound travels far in the foothills of
the Rockies.
Then he tainted.
Then all the conscious life that re-
manned within, the vast horizon was
one lame mule, blind of one eye. The
other eye had been blind from time
lmmemorial. The lame hind leg had
been caused by recent impact with
granite
This mule was millionaire!
His one calm eye surveyed tract
yellowed by untold gold!
He was the sole possessorl
He shifted indifferently at the tall
form of his master, becoming iAdis-
tinct in the dusk.
He was doing his stubborn best to
rectify an impression that he had
missed his mark. for the first time in
his life. He saw the man iying there
Nothing but the kick could have
downed him. Yet the mule felt. when
he attempted to step on the hoof he
had fred with, that shere must be
some mistake.
His one eye grew green. Visions of
innumerable thumpings arose in his
goddess memory,
In 10 br 1xr Ntv,,a II IN TfnI
never made
Why should he not turn and kick
out the brains Of this relentless man,
who had hammered his ribs, and
pounded his head. and kicked his belly
over hundreds of miles OF desert?
But in 2 dim way. horse sense-his
only legacy from long maternal line
Of ancestors, struggled through red
passion and green revenge. He could
Aot use the lame leg to kick with. He
could not stand on the lame leg while
he kicked with the other.
He turned and began munching at
a sage bush.
The long man lay there still Very
still
| A creek brawled over the rocks a
| few rods away
The man had selected this place for
his night camp, because of this creek.
It would supply water for himself and
his mule.
| The mule, being athirst, hobbled
down to the creek, and drank. AS he
| drank he saw the long form of hif
master slowly toiling on hands and
knees down the declivity to tbs
4 stream.
His one eye observed that his master
drank feverishly, ravenously, as If t
drain this ditch Of creek of ever,
i crystal drop
Then his dull comprehension was
changed to apprehension.
His master arose and executed ,
tran endous war dance, so suddeiis
and energetcally that the mule, beint
wise in his day and generation--a leg
acy from a long line OF dams-wen
q, sidewise in an instructive effort 80
make distance between his master ant
himself
In an ecstasy of Joy, the man, no
realizing the lameness, of the mule
lin fact he had been dead to the worlt
since the lameness had occurredl-i
an ecstasy of joy. the man suddenly Sc
his shoulder against the mules rear
and heaved him into the creek. 1t wa
pure ecstasy Nothing more.
He loved the mule All old grHdge
we're gone He loved all the world an
the red, rising moon and the eterna
stars that now smiled down upon him
His horizons had widened with ex
panding hope Whereas. but a fey
lost minutes ago, himself and his mu
and the ravine through which tn
creek ran had been his entire worlf
Enow the entire world was his It too
In the oceans and continents. u en-
braced the home of aged parents !
the east and d girl whom he associate
with a gate.
All the hard frontiers of his nature
hard with frozen hopes, melted int
one universal benevolence. He eve
helped the struggling mule out OF tn
, creek
poor devil, you are cripple, n
said with concentrated observance,
the beast clattered painfully over tn
rocks. Wen call this Cripple Creek
And It was so.
. A soul had sundered its sepulchr
!, From the narrow confines of dali
/, coffin, crowded with dead hopes, banl
/, rupt enthusiasms and the ghosts OF b,
gone anticipatIons from the conten
platien Of an. endless procession OF co
orless to-morrows, he had suddenl
: burst, bright, bewildered, effulgen
! upon wondering world, and himself
I Herein is the true story Of the fin
!, ing OF the great Cripple Creek mines
, Colorado. Other versions have bee
given, but this Is the correct one.
The mule Ia still living.
The man is not dead.
Suppose the mule had mauled II
' mans head in, somehow, In the gioan
: inc that night! Magazine.