Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-12-07
My Friend Jardin

be to go west with an uncle and | -
enter a law office at home. We wrote
each other weekly for three years and
were as faithful as lovers. Up to this
time we had both been poor, depend
ing on ourselves more than on our ia
theirs, but now relative died and left
me $4,000 in cash. My first letter to
Jatdin after receiving the news was to
offer him present of $1,000.
He replied that he was doing well in
the mining business and did not need
and would not accept the money, but if
| wanted to double it in six months he
would show me how and take q share
of the profits. After some further cor
respondence l started for the west with
lny legacy in my pocket.
found j. rdin serving as assistant
Superintendent in a gold mine, and we
greeted each other as two old friends
should. He had prospected a bit and
made a great find.
1t was a week before we were on
the mountain where his find was To-
Gated and where my money would be
needed to make wagon roads, purchase
machinery and bring in staff of Ia
borers. On the forenoon of the second
Cay our pack horse met with fall and
was lamed, and we decided to lay by
for a day to give him chance to re-
cover.
At 3 O'Clock in the afternoon Jardin
started out to scout around the camp
and over the trail we were to follow
the next day, and spread blanket
over the pine needles and lay down
for a nap 1t was a still, quiet day,
and l was doing when the thought
Suddenly flashed over me that Jardin
meant me i'll, and found myself sit
ting up before 1 knew it. l laughed
aloud at the thought. If my own
mother had been there and told me
that he meant me i'll would not have
believed 1t. / lay down again, and
then it struck me that he had acted
rather queer and constrained since
starting. He had written me to bring
gold from Denver. He had made sure
that brought $3S,000. He had almost
hidden me away in the mining village,
and he had insisted that take another
name and conceal my home address.
His excuses at the time seemed more
than enough, but now when began to
argue things point by point l was
stunned. Taking the case wholesale,
as you might say, believed in him as
In, M othar mon fTol.ino IF roint Inv
point, / had to conclude that le had
some evil scheme on hand.
Jardin was absent for two hours and
then returned to report all quiet. /
began to watch him now, and knowing
him as well as l did soon saw that
he was i'll at ease. He no longer look
ed me in the eyes as of old He was
nervous and furtive. l found dozen
reasons for suspecting him.
To the west of our camp the side of
the mountain rose sharply, and there
were several great powders almost
towering over us. If it had been the
rainy season l should have feared that
some of them might have become loos-
ened and fallen down on us. After
supper we smoked, talked of old times
and cared for the horses, and about 8
o'clock Jardin suggested that we turn
in so as to get an early start in the
morning We had pitched our small
tent and gathered pine needles for a
bed, and the night was one for sleep.
Jardin seemed to fall asleep almost at
once, but l could not shut my eyes.
| didn't sigh and kick aboNt, and Jar
din must have believed me-to be sound
asleep when he finally rose up with the
utmost care, looked at me for mo-
ment and then, taking the crowbar
from the pack, walked toward the
powders. What On earth he was 60
ing to do was beyond me until slyly
followed him to see with my own eyes.
] found him digging and prying be-
hind the biggest bowlder, and that
bowlder was right in line with the tent
and only fifty feet away | thought at
first that he was looking for gold: that
he was developing some sort of a find
to show me in the morning. l held to
this idea for three or four minutes and
was about to address him and give him
the laugh when another idea entered
my head and brought out the goose
flesh all over my body.
Jardin was working TO roll that giant
bowlder down upon the tent and me as
! slept! 1t was a matter not to be ar
gued. 1t was murder he had been con
tenplating ever since he had written
me to come west Some men might
have acted differently in my place.
They might have made their presence
known, exposed him, played the hypo-
critic or what not. did nothing but
wait and watch
The man had worked for quarter of |
an hour in my sight, when he passed
around to the front of the bowlder to
remove stone. He showed the crow !
bar under it and gave heave. at the
same time turning his face toward the /
tent as If to see if | was astir. The big
Dowlder moved. II broke out Of its bed
OF sudden, and Jardin jumped to es-
cape It, He jumped down hill II
caught him up and rolled over him in a
Hash and then was over the tent and
crashing through the trees until if final
" rested far baIoxr