Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-11-11

~ @Cf-
the wall of the canyon
Halfway down the trail, he came
upon the slide. 1t was a small affair,
only a few toms of earth and crum-
bling rockj but, starting from fifty
feet above, 1t had struck the water
pipe with force sufficient to break 1t
at q connection. Before proceeding
to work, he glanced up the path of
the slide, and he saw what made his
eyes startle and cease for the mo-
ment from questing farther.
Hello" he communed aloud, Took
who's here"
His glance moved on up the steep
broken surface. and across it from
side to side. Here and there, in
places, small twisted manzanitas were
rooted precariously. but In the main,
save for weeds and grass, that portion
of the canyon was bare. There were
signs of a surface that had shifted
often as the rain poured a how of rich
eroded soil from above over the lip of
the canyon.
"a true fssure vein, or I never saw
one" he proclaimed softly.
Dropping the hammer and pipe
wrench, but retaining pick and shovel,
he climbed up the slide to where a
vague line of out-jutting but mostly
~soil-covered rock could be seen. 1t
was all but indiscernible, but his prao-
ticed eye had sketched the hidden In
formation which 1t signified. Here
and there, along this wall Of the vein,
he attacked the orumbIing rock with
the pick and shoveled the cucumber
amined this rock. SO soft was some
of 1t that he could break it in his I'm
gers. Shifting q dozen feet higher up,
he again attacked with pick and
shovel. And this time, when he rub
bed the soil from q chunk of rock and
looked, he Strengthened up suddenly,
gasping with delight. And then, like
a deer at a drinking pool In fear OF its
enemies. he flung a quick glance
around to see IL any eye were gazing
upon him. He grinned at his W
foolishness and returned to his exami-
nation of the chunk. A slant of sun
light fell on 1t, and It was all aglitter
with tiny specks of unmistakabie free
gold.
From the grass roots down. he
muttered in an awe-stricken voice. as
he swung his pick into the yielding
surface.
Sometimes he started small slides
of earth that covered up his work and
compelled him to dig again. Once
he was swept fifty feet down the can
yon-side; but he ~floundered and scram-
bled UP again without pausing for
breath. He hit upon quartz that was
SO rotten that 1t was almost like clay,
and here the gold was richer than
ever. 1t was a verftable treasure
chamber. For a hundred feet up and
down he traced the walls of the vein.
He even climbed over the ~canyon-lip
to look along the brow Of the hill for
signs OF the outcrop. But that could
wait, and he hurried back to his find.
He toiled on in the same mad haste,
until exhaustion and an tntoIerable
ache in his back compelled him to
PAUSE. AiC stni6AtCASu Ny WALL cFOn
a richer piece of gold-laden quartz.
STOPPING, the sweat from his forehead
had fallen to the ground. It now ran
into his eyes. binding him. He wiped
it from him with the back of his hand
and returned to a scrutiny OF the gold.
It would run thirty thousand to the
ton, Fifty thousand, anything-he knew
that. And as he gazed upon the vel
low lure, and painted for air, and
wiped the sweat away, his quick vision
lesped and set to work. He saw the
spur-track that must run up from the
valley and across the upland pastures,
and he ran the grades and built ths
bridge that would span the canyon,
until 1t was real before his eyes,
Across the canyon vas the plaos for
the mill. and there he erected 1t; and
ha erected. also. the endless chain al