The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-10-03

ing with wrinkled. stumpy finger 10 a
displayed article headed 'Depreda
.tions of the Miser.Fly."
Rapidly Willets scanned The ar.
count, with its large scare" head
dwelling on the extraordinary Ter.
fUrmances of an insect which natir.
lists pronounced TO be the common
horsefly, but which had now acquired
new name. through its apparent
thirst for gold Then he went on or.
.dering the rest OF his outfit of beans.
canned goods. powder, fuses and toolg.
weighing out the dust as the amounts
were called OF
Careful, stranger! Don't you see
emf again shouted Old barney.
Cover your gold, or You won't have
any to weight"
-Four large horsenies flew heavily
over the head of Willcts. yellow with
DUST While he was staring at thcm
another dropped down on the little
yellow cone, flipped over with aero.
baiic agility, eluded the gold.hunter's
grasp, ana was gone Willets was
gaining experience and losing gold at
the rate of many dollars minute.
Tell mo more about these crit.
ters!' cried Willetts. now Interested
IN thom nearly $40 worth.
Well" replied Old Barney. "thc
first knew Of EN- was early I'm March
We had a saucer Of gold dust in a
broken showcase, and in two davs II
was empty. We filed IL up. and in
about the same length of time the
dust was all gone. Then we watched
and found The flies getting in through
i small break In the glass. They
we're covered with some sort of sticky
STUFF, and we're unusually active. They
wallowcd in the dust Just as Won have
seen them, and flew out. We caught
a few, by stopping up the hole. bnt
couldn't wash off the metal. We had
TO burn the hios--actually melt en-
before we could recover the gold,"
Aud he ended with laugh which
somehow Jared upon the ears or his
listener
Early next morning, with what dust
Barney and the flies had loft him
carefully concealed in buckskin belt
Dave Willetts left Balladcna, with tbe
intention of making the trip back 10
his camp in two days. by making n
slight dctom he meant to stop over
night at The cabin of an old friend
Ben Richway, who, he had heard. was
prospecting some 4G miles southeast
III Green gulch, about half way to his
own camp He had not seen Re,
since the old days when they had
been suitors for the same giI for
when David Willetts had married
Helen, Richway had responded to the
cal of the gold, and gone west 10
search for II.
Uayid's thoughts, therefore, ran
backward and rorw"-u, Shuttle like. as
he picked his way down the almost
Perpendicular walls. hundreds of feet
high, of the deep canyon called Green
Gulch. Time had passed unnotlced,
but when he looked at the sun he
found II was within an hour or being
down. His burros stepped carefully,
win cat.llke tread. so steep and pre-.
cariuus was the trail One Of the
crags gave forth piercing scream,
and startled eagle flew down the
canyon and disappeared. AS the eye
of Willetts followed its flight, he per.
ceived a light blue smoke curling up
ward in the still air from n prospec.
tors cabin at The bottom Of the sulch
and he knew from the directions
he had received that It must be
The abode Of Bon Richway. it stood
ON the edge Of u precipice, sheer
thousand feet above an apron Of
ragged granite blocks, and he recalled
his informants remark:
'You'll have TO climb mighty hard,
and you'll find him pecooliar cuss.
Think he's about twothiIds locoed!"
Willctts had been but little as
ionished--a remembrance OF certain OF
Ben's old idiosyncrasies coming back
10 him-and when at length he came
in sight Of "A man sitting in moody
attitude at the foot OF the perpendic-
ular cliff on which the cabin was
perched, he had to cough TO attract
attention.
Never had he seen a human face
marked with such an expression Of
hopeless despair as that OF his old
companion. but its nightmare look
gave way At once TO the light of recog.
milton and cordial welcome, as the
staring eyes were lifted to his own.
You are the very man | was lust
wishing for!" Ben Richway exclaimed,
springing to his feet, dropping the
rifle that lay across his lap, aud hold.
ing the hand of Willetts tightly in a
grasp of extraordinary warmth.
Half an hour of hard climbing,
lighted by gay chat, was required to
reach the aery dwelling of Rlchway,
which Willetts saw, TO his surprise, to
consist not of one log cabin, but two,
with considerable space between
them, In front of them, just balanced
over the abyss, was II huge bowlder OF
granite, weighing perhaps 1000 tons.
David Willetts attributed the rock to
a freak of nature, and the peculiar
double house to Il whlm.
When their pipes were aglow after
supper they lived over again their old
schoolboy experiences, but some sub
iccts were tactily avoided
Next morning David yanturad IN