Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-18
Other t


gested to them. and before night as one man.
the camp had decided to carry it out.
Jim Griffith, the sawyer, had been found on
the rocks of the creek below the mill dump, dead
Griffith had been their leader, the head of the
movement against Boss, and the man whose
voice might have aroused them to prevailed
against the step they had decided upon in his
name. But Griffith was dead Work at the
mill stopped-not because Griffith was dead, but
because Boss could get no other sawyer to take
the dead mans place. All day long knots of
men gathered at his cabin to look at his broken
clay. There was little said. 1t was PLAIN enough.
But had he really fallen down the dump to his
death? What this story, growing growing
of row he had had with Boss of words and
oaths that had been overheard between them, OF
blow. even, that Boss had struck: Who start
ed it? Was 1t true? Quen sabe? 1t was there
strong enough, and Judge Lynch believed it and
took up The case. 1t was to have its hearing That
night.
The for came in not farther than the crest of
the ridge. There its gray roll rested, waited The
spot selected was mile back of the camp and
higher up the mountain-so high, indeed, that
the ton of the great redwood, beneath which men
were digging was shrouded in mist. Silence and
darkness reIgned. There a chill in the air r-
the snicv lamp of the shadowless woods about,
the salty breath of the Jog above. The men
sbivered as they worked. Now and again PICK
clicked on a rock a spade grated over gravel a
stone slipped from the loosened earth and
plunged away down the mountain side One OF
the men laughed. a short, mirthess chuck!c
which died away in the grave itself as, bending
over to smooth the earthly bed. he was lost Ill
the depths OF the hole.
deep enough?' one of them asked down to
him.
"Sure, it is. SOS he'll stay all right he an
s,vered up. Give us a rock to rest his thoughts
on" And together two of them rolled a bould
err to the edge of the pit and tumbled it in
The work finished, they sat down on the pile
of dirt they had thrown up to wait The gray
for over the range in the west sifted lower and
lower among the trees until it seemed a wall
pressing down upon them, pressing down upon
them the silence of eternity the silence of the
redwoods at night. But they waited the east
grew bright: host of giant trees rose gravely
out of the night and stalked along the range be-
fore them sharp, black silhouettes against the
coming light. and slowly, majestcaly, a full
moon rose over the Big Basin. The men beheld |
its coming with awe. The blackness about them
was drawn from the earth-down the face of the
mountain, across the basin, and up the range 1t
traied away and the air grew luminous. A thin
mist hung above the valley above the range in .
the west the fog lay, vein of cleaning silver.
There was the sound of breaking brush coming
towards them, and the men sprang to their feet.
Someone hallOoed; halloo answered. The voices
were like the boots OF owls, low, hollow, melan
choly. But it was single man that pushed into
the clearing, breathless they had waited for
more
whats wrohg?' they demanded in breath
Hes gone" the messenger answered. "Ony
the Chinaman at his cabin. Says he's gone to
Boulder to see his girl"
'To what"
'To see his girl"
''His girl?' the men laughed derisivey. His
girl. His girls good He's on to our game and
skipped; that's his girl"
ooh, it's a girl all right The coolie says he