New-York tribune., 1906-06-10

N~A
"a beside a we'll
They were four miles away He
leaped to his feet and down the slope with
the strength OF desperation. Half falling, but
dOggedly keeping onward, he emerged from the
mountains at last and forged painfully out upon
the desert
Before he came to the we'll he fell repeatedly,
and crawled, and rose again to stagger forward
And the smell of the water his nOstrils when
he fifty yards away. Then he ran, with his last
muster OF strength. and, falling athWart the horse
trough buried his head in the tepid liquid and drank
till he all but tainted with the ecstasy of taste,
While he still sat there the of plodding
horses came to the place in a cloud of floating
fume. The beasts dusty sweating and we'll
nigh famished for water They drank, and the team
ster paid price of twenty-five cents for everyone
to the who owned the we'll
Maynard went into the desert house The man
who owned it, he who had dug the we'll a hundred
and fifty feet downward to water, piling up
riches so rapidly that his mind dazed. But
he recognized Maynards exhausted condition, and
gave him food and drink and a bed and told him
the place was his home.
For nearly two DAYS Maynard rested at the place;
then teamster arrived from Gold Circle camp with
news to stir his blood. a strike had been made on
the Bright Hope lease and Blake was Sackng
golden worth five thousand dollars to the
Maynard returned that day to the camp where his
hopes funds, and energies had been ruthlessly
thrown to the winds AT the claim the hill
where he had mined with his partner there
ore-sacks filled with precious quartz, heaped like
a wall on the former dump and two hired miners
We're gouging cleft OF its golden hoard as If very
mend had been goadlng at their backs
Blake there When Maynard confronted him
last, he read with clearness the meaning of the
cold hard gleam that played in his former partners
eyes.
"How's this?" he said. Are you working here
now for Folger & Company, who bought our lease?"
Don't try to get funny, Maynard said his
former friend. You're a quitter; you've got a
streak OF yellow in your blood got on, that's all,
and took up the lease myself.
Il see" said MAYNARD, coolly enough, aware of
his helpless position And also, if | remember
correctly, Blake, YOU were the one who ALWAYS
had the assays made, and you always reported
gold"
Look here. What do YOU mean," demanded
Blake aggressively. Do YOU to insinuate that
I've robbed you, Maynard1 If you do"
Don't get excited, interrupted Maynard quietly.
"Al I've got to say is that of your kind OF friend
ship, and your kind of mining, and your kind of
honor Blake | certainly gutter. But to
the game-let's wait and see
Blake watched him go 3" All right" he said.
"All right Mavnard-we'n see
When the word went round that Howard Blake had
cleaned up and sacked fully eighty thousand dollars
worth of ore. and that he and the rock would go
out together a freghter to the railroad,
solitary hOrSeman rode promptly forth from Gold
Circle camp the station the middle OF the desert
1t was MAYNARD come a day ahead of Blake, who
would ride a load of golden Ave, 1t was
MAYNARD grim and hardened and with something of
exceptional importance to discuss with the man who
owned the we'll.
That night the man leased the well and station
to MAYNARD for a period OF tortyeight hours, and,