The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-09-02
CACHE IN THE sIERRAS
BY viii Lexington Comfort.

by Will Levin
From the Kansas City Star.
Dave T1chno1 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 hopes for the sue
cess OF the enterprise there was, little
thought Of self. Her faith admitted no
question of Dawes triumph. she would
not deter him by confessing the truth
which throbbed n ached throughout her
whole being-that the wealth OF all the
Kingdoms of earth could not compensate
for the agony Of loneliness and suspense.
Her share In the quest was the tedium of
resignation.
Dave did not take luck, the autocrat of
miners and 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. Il
Labor put a stoop to his shoulders and
into his eyes haggard avarice. He lived
aloof. The success Of others maddened
him. Nights when the whole boisterous
settlement gathered in the saloon Dave
would sit alone in his shack, sometimes
writing to the girl Of his unconquerable
faith in inns 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, shutting
his ears. And then again. In rare. still
moments of evening, he would sit trance
like, racked by the pains of memory and
the haunt of his brides face-a girlish face,
wistfully sweet.
II may have been wrong to come" he
o say at the end Of weary days, but I
won't give 1t up, SO long as the sierras
etanA!~
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 land. We. with other miners.
out of suits with fortune. yet possessed by
an inexorable mania, wandered to the re-
mote camps of the higher range. One of
these camps was called Miners Gold, and
was dedicated to hope inextinguishable.
His luck did not change. There came q
night in which his resentment against him
self, and the thrall OF encouragement,
which SO %Viciously bound him., reached a
climax, and he drank. The stimulant
served only to sharper 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 a minute there. will you-till
I write five words?'' he called hoarsely.
Nh n n vSo cnanta n, chnn< nf NO
was wet from the bar. By the mans jerk
Ing fingers and tense, sweating face. one
could imagine that he was choking the life
from some form beneath him. He handed
q smudgy envelope to the carrier and
walke back to the bar.
The next day, when Dave awoke, certain
moments of the past night came back like
streaks of light seen through the cracks
OF a curtain. He the letter
with a gulp 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 soiled' shelf upon which he had
slept.
And I have written her to come to
this!" he exclaimed brokenly.
The thought Of food revolted him. He
eeized his tools and started for the dig
gings without breaking his fast. He toiled
AAAAOdSlS"koA4Sb d. S'SS ~
for days and days. Men chaffed him at
first, but The face that turned toward them
between blows Of the pick-white-lipped,
wasted, big-eyed-was q 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 pittance for his
labor and yet he dig not relax. He felt
that his only reparat1on for calling the
girl into the midst of such conditions was
to find the treasure before she arrived.
Sometimes q 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
q few months we shall be together. I
have been gold seeking in my dreams OF
late and I know that when l come to Min
er's Gold I shall lead you to the spot where
the treasure lies-our treasurer"
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
pioners' wagon train, which she accom-
panied, must ave crossed the Rockies and
touched the bleak. illimitable desert. a
recalled his own experience en- route three
years before, the horror with which the in
finite stretches Of naked plains had filled
him, the intolerable heat, the whtstling tor
ment Of hot winds-winds which swept up
the alkali dust in wraith-ltke clouds and
sent them whirling through the air
scorching phantoms whose burdens were
blindness and m%addening thirst. With the
girl from Michigan in the desert Dawes
every thought was a prayer.
1t was 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 a curse to find
that 1t was late afternoon. The men were
packing up their kits, yet Dave had
scarcely realized hat the day had begun.
He wondered for an instant where his
mind had been, though his wrists were
puffed with the strain Of the pick and his
boulder pits were filled with pain. He
worked IN alone until the clods glowed be-
fire his eyes. His struggles were Ill d.
rected. The thoughts ran around and