Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1909-02-25

more than that In two years?" ven
tured Byrnes.
"You bet; twelve thousand coin In
one haul"
The deputy sheriff rode off toward
town leading the horse upon which
the victim of mistaken identity was
mounted with his feet tied together
under the cinch, and the sheriff. with
the actual old sinner as special dep.
uty, began the search for treasure.
The prisoners hat had been forgotten,
and he and his captor returned to get
ii. AS they rode from the cabin door
the second time, the sheriff, pursuing
his quest, pulled a ring in the floor,
opening small door, which disclosed
a cellar. He descended into it, follow
ed by Byrnes. And one of these two
men was seen no more.
The surveyor. in custody OF Deputy
lin, looked back from the heights two
miles distant and saw one man leave
the cabins and force his horse into the
rapid current Of the river. The horse
swan strongly and landed on the
north bank far down the stream.
The river had risen and overfiowed
the bottoms when the deputy and
posse returned the next day, SO that
it was impossible to reach the cabins
One may swim horse half mile on
occasion, if the water be deep enough
but one foot of water with soft mud
beneath it is impossible.
When the freshet subsidized the little
knoll where the cabins had stood had
crumbled and caved away into the
stream. The clump of cottonwoods
had been uprooted. and every vestige
of the buildings had drifted away. A
deposit of silt covered the valley from
bluff to bluff, and no man could say
where the cabins had stood.
The surveyor who went TO town as
prisoner had no difficulty in estab-
fishing his identity, and returned with
the party to see the end of his adj.
venture. He and others spent much
time In trailing the man who had been
seen to swim the river and go north.
ward. but he was never discovered
nor identified. 1t was at first generally
assumed that this man was Byrnes,
who had made off with his ill-gotten
riches after overcoming the sheriff.
But later, when the sheriff's bonds.
men were called upon to make up a
small shortage in his accounts, it was
held by some that the sheriff had made
away with Byrnes, and found n cache
so rich that he could not afford to
come in and give it up.
| A third ingenious theory was that
Byrnes had "whacked up" with the
sheriff, there being plumber enough to
make both men rich, and that both
had gotten away-the sheriff on horse.
back and Byrnes afoot Finally (for
! the meager description that could be
had Of the man who rode away north.
ward fitted to neither) it was held by
many that the men had fight over
the treasure in the cellar or cave un.
der the cabin. and that il the place
could be located an excavation would
recover both bodies and much coin.
The surveyor concerned himself
chiefly with the physical features OF
the case. Later in the season he took
the trouble to go down with his instru
ment, and demonstrated that no gov
eminent subdivisional lines could have
run near the site of the twin cabins
Nor was the names of Byrnes found
on the books of the local land office
No doubt the cabins were connected
! by a tunnel used by ByrneS to store
his plumber. No doubt the tunnel Is
there yet. The cowboys who ride that
range talk each spring of organizing
a syndicate in the fall, and digging
up the whole Platte Valley. 1t would
be an interesting experiment.