The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-02-02
A CACHE IN THE SIERRAS|
BY Will Lexington Comfort.

CACHE IN :
BY Will Levir
From the Kansas City Star.
Dave Tichnor was one Of the thousands
who left tangible acres for a promise OF
the Sierras. More than that, he left a
bride. In the woman's hopes for the sue
cess of the enterprise there was little
thought of self. Her faith admitted nc
question of Dawes triumph. She would
not deter him by confessing the truth
which throbbed and ached throughout her
whole b~eing-that the wealth of all the
klngdoms of earth could not compensate
for the agony Of loneliness and suspense.
Her share in the quest was the tedium OF
resignation.
Dav did not take luck. the aatocrat Of
miners n gamblers. into reckoning.
Three years in the California gold fields
dragged his bright garments Of optimism
into the miry ruts Of daily failure. Those
years were desperate-dulled by toll, as
sailed by discouragements, darkened by
ceaseless wanderings and burned by fevers
OF hope.
Labor put a stoop to his shoulders and
Into his eyes haggard avarice. He lived
aloof. The success Of others maddened
him. Nights when h whole boisterous
settlement gathered In the saloon Dave
would sit alone in his shack, sometimes
writing to the girl of his unconquerable
faith in ultimate fortune, but more often
huddled forward, an aching heap upon the
table. At times when the night winds bore
him the sound of drunken songs and brawl-
ings. he would arise in frenzy. ehuttiAg
his ears. And then again. IN rare. still
moments Of evening, he would sit trance
al ~1-Hro5 N,, %L. ol~ ne YnoYnnru ond
The haunt OF his brides face-a girlish face.
wistfully sweet.
II may have been wrong to come" he
would say at the end Of weary days, "but I
won't give it up SO long as the Sierras
stand!"
The gold excitement abated somewhat.
Pioneers whose portion Of fortune had
been a scant one, settled in the valley OF
Sacramento n elsewhere. Many OF the
gold mines still yielded their ~largesses,
but more were abandoned and their former
owners applied themselves to the cultiva-
ton Of the and We. with other miners.
out OF suits with fortune, yet possessed by
mote camps OF the higher range. One OF
these mi vas called Miners Gold. and
was dedicated to hope inextinguishable.
His luck did not change. There came a
night in which his resentment against HIM
velf, and the thrall of encouragement,
which 80 viciously bound him, reached a
climax, and he drank. The stimulant
served only to sharpen his misery. Lean
Ing against the bar. and staring into his
empty glass. he heard the men Joking with
the mail carrier, who was just about to
start on his monthly trip down the trail, to
Sacramento City. Dawes letter was al
ready in the pouch, and yet he straight
ened up suddenly and faced the crowd at
the door.
"Hold on q minute there, will youth
I write We words?" he called hoarsely.
The carrier assented. M sheet Of paper
was wet from the bar. BY the mans jerk
Ing fingers and ense. sweating face. one
eould imagine that he was choking the life
from some form beneath him. He handed
smudgy envelope to the carrier and
walked back to the bar.
The next day, when ave awoke, certain
moments Of the past night came back like
Dtreaks OF light seen through the cracks
Of q curtain. Fe remembered the letter
with q Eulp of shame. His first impulse
was to dash down the trail after the car
rier, but the insanity of the idea gripped
him quickly. He glanced about the untidy
room, at the muddy floor, the unwashed
pans, the soilcd shelf upon which he had
slept.
''And / ave written her to come to
this!!" he exclaimed brokenly.
The thought of food revolted him. He
BSlANA llAo hAAo Lei kSo ~ N&tS1
gings without breaking his fast. He tcilcd
fu~riously-toiled as never beforehand so
Tor days and days. Men chatfed him at
first, but the face that turned toward them
between blows of the pick-white-lipped,
wasted, big-eyed-was a quick poison to
mirth. After dark they heard him work
ing at his shack, heard the cough of his
saw and the blows of his AK, and so some
times when they awoke in the midst of the
night. They said to each other that ITCH
enor had gone mad.
Nature gave him but a p~ittance for his
labor and yet he did not relax. He felt
that his only reDaration for calling the
girl into the midst of such conditions was
to find the treasure before she arrived.
Sometimes a certain exultation~ conquered.
The thought of her on the way would cast
a momentary glow upon the ruins of ia
tigue which his brain had become
After many days her letter came:
Keep a brave heart" she wrote. in
a few months we shall be together. 1
have been gold seeking in my dreams of
late and 1 know that when l come to Min
er's Gold I shall lead you to the spot where
the treasure lies-our tr%easure.!"
Dave knew the approximate date of her
departure, and had mentally followed the
progress of her journey. 1t was early
summer. BY this time, Dave pondered, the
pioneers wagon train, which she accom-
RAlAfSAv ~ - OSo 49,
touched the bleak, illimitable desert. Dave
recalled his own experience en- route three
years before, the horror with which the In
finite stretches of naked plains had filed
aim, the intolerable heat, the whistling tor
ment Of hot -winds-winds which swept UP
che alkali dust in wraith-like clouds and
sent them whirling through the air
srorching phantoms whose burdens We're
blindness and maddening thirst. With the
gisl from Michigan in the desert Dawes
every thought was a prayer.
IT wa a month before the wagon train
was due in Sacramento, and according to
Dawes reckoning, the girl was far in the
desert. He looked UP with q curse to find
mat naeti n wa an 'a. their ar'el hle.' vet ans Dave MAD a
scarcely realized that the day had begun.
He wondered for an instant where his
mind had been, though his wrists were
pulled with the strain of the Esnk and his
shoulder pits were filled with rssh He
worked on alone until the clods gloves be-
fore his eyes. His struggles were Ill dt-
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