Amador ledger., 1910-02-25

AliS AliUhklit VI WiiAA niiktA bNs liz Nds
weak and nervous with excitement
Visions OF CHASTITY skeletons came be.
fore him. He looked toward the dark
hole with bulging eyes as IL expecting
to see ghost arise from it. His hear
throbbed violently; his breath came in
short gasps he was almost overcome.
Rising to his feet, he could hardly
stand, and staggering back few steps
he Set down on the fallen tree that he
has removed.
Gradually his strength returned and he
became his normal self again. "What
nonsense, " he said, ITO get frightened
at hole in a rock !" Then he looked
again at the crumbling ladder and
thought what time had elapsed since it
had been used.
Getting the rope that he had purchased
that morning, he made one end Of il
fast to the fallen tree, tied knots in it
about foot apart, and gathering some
bark from a dead birch tree for a torch,
he hurriedly--for fear he might lose his
courage again-lowered himself through
the opening into that dark cavern. He
was soon at the bottom, lighted his
ch-bark torch and looked about him.
A sight met his eyes that held him
spellbound. For least minute, as
stationary as statue, he stared at the
scene before him; for there, banked
against the rock, so rOtted by time that
the contents of manv of them had run
out and partly covered the rest of them,
was pile of gold dust bags that ex-
ceeded his widest dreams. AS the
torch light fell upon the millions of
small PARTICLES, they glinted and
glistened until they almost dazzled him.
"Great heavens - he exclaimed,
am dreaming? Have gone crazy?
Or is this really gold? A ton and a
half of it if there is a pound No, am
not dreaming" he continued; this is
gold. A million dollars piled in these
rocks. Who could have put it here?
Where is the mine from which it was
taken? How long has it been here?
What calamity happened to the ones
who put it here; did thev sacrifice their
lives for this gold? How long would it
have remained hidden had not dis
covered the ants with some of it stick
ing to them" and a hundred other
questions he asked himself half aloud
as he stood gazing on that sparkling
pile, none of which could be answered.
In corner of the cavern-whch was
not more than five feet by seven in size
five rifles were leaning against the
rocks They were rusty with age and of
a pattern in use more than a half cen
tury before. He picked one up, but so
decayed was the stock that it crumbled
and fell apart in his hand
AS the professor picked his way down
the rugged mountain his thoughts
naturally turned toward the fair girl he
had been obliged to leave so abruptly in
Boston, also to the cruel, sneering
manner in which her naughty father had
alluded to him as "poor bug catcher. "
He had written the Young lady
Miss Richardson-but once since he
left her, gloomy, discouraging letter.
begging her TO forget him.
On reaching the inn, he was again
surprised to find letter from her
awaiting him, as he had requested her
not to write
God bless the little angel - ex-
claimed the professor, as he stopped
reading TO wipe the mist from his eyes.
"Fll not ask her to forget me again.
Her proud austere father, nor no other
power on earth, shall keep me from her. "
He finished reading her long letter,
filled TO overhowing with undying love
and eternal fidelity.
by heavens !" he said. "I'll show
the old nabob what a bug -catcher-as he
calls me-can do. -
On his way East, the professor pro-
cured Boston papers, in which he saw a
notice of the failure of the large shipping
firm of Richardson, Sprague & company,
owing to heavy losses in South America.
The night after his arrival in Boston,
he called on Mr. Richardson.
What you here again? said he, as
the professor was shown into the
library.
Z" have not come TO ask favors of
you, )" replied the professor 81 saw
by the papers that you and your partners
were in financial trouble, and came to
ask you il could be of any assistance. -