The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-04-11
On Good Luck
Trail
Good Luck In More
Ways Then One
By cLARIssA MAcklH

Lem Harrison stopped and looked
down the narrow trail over which be
had been trudging with tired, blistered
feet.
Il don't know whI they cav this
Gopd Luck trail" he uuttered. ''un.
less 1t Is because you're having good
luck II you get back alive. / can't
think Of any other reason"
He wiped the perspirauon from his
heated face, settled the pack on. his
bent back ana resumed the steady.
upward climb into. the heart Of the
sierras. Somewhere far above him.
concealed in a little gully mapped out
on a rough piece of paper he carried
next his heart. was hidden treasure
Of gold dust lem HarrIson's Uncle
Peter had been forty.niner and
among the iirst to reach the California
goldflelds. He had written letters
home OF wonderful fortune he had
amassed and told in detail how the
precious dust was contained in stout
tin boxes and the whole hoard cached
in this gully until his search for riches
wqs ended. Then he would gather up
all his treasure and take 1t down to
San Francisco.
Months after that had come news of
his death in San Francisco. almost
penniless. His widow. who went west
to bring back his remains, could OBJ
thin no news of the fortune he had
written about and the only clew to
which was a small, rough map found
among his clothing. This she gave to
Lem Harrison's father, who in turn
bequeathed it to his son as curiosity.
But Lem possessed the same spirit
of adventure that had prompted his
Uncle Peter to fare. forth in search of
fortune, and after the death OF his
parents he, too, had turned his face to
the golden west. and tucked inside hts
pocket was the map made by his I'm
Gle Peter sixty years before For sew
eral years Lem led varied life on the
plains.
He had been cattlemnn and pros.
pector and trackwalker for the rail-
road, but the lure of gold drew him.
ever farther westward until his feet
had crossed the line into California,
and he had at Inst set forth on a def
mite expedition in search of the gold
dust concealed by his uncle.
IF he took it down to Frisco with
him why did he make the map?" he
argued with himself at night when he
made his lonely camp. Seems as If
he might have found more gold after
he hid that first lot and so he left 1t
there and took the second lot down to
the city and blew 1t in. don't like to
think that have been deceiving my
self all these years and, that when,
get to Good Luck gulch I'm going to
be disappointed. Who knows but
somebody else has found it years
back? Pshaw! l won't think any.
thing more about 1t till get there"
Lem Harrison beguiled his lonely
way with occasional monologues. AS
he mounted higher into the rare upper
air Of the mountains he felt great ex-
hilaration. In the distance We're snow
capped peaks, and about him there
were young pines that glistened in the
sunlight. he shifted the fresh air and
whistled cheerily.
According to his map he had another
mile to travel before he would reach
the entrance to the gulch that was his
goal, He had crossed and recrossed a
crooked stream that latticed the trail
with little runlets, and he recognized
1t as the stream described by his uncle
and from whose waters had been wash
ed the precious gold. In Good Luck
Gulch this stream had it's greatest
breadth.
Three-quarters Of mile farther and
Just as the sun was setting he knew
that he was nearing his goal. The
pines had thinned out, and he had
reached an eminence where he could
look back over the trail and see it drop
ping like a sad colored string down the.
mountain side.
If don't find it." he muttered grim
II, IN give this trail new name. 1t
won't sound like good luck and it'n
smell mighty sulphurous!"
he wouldn't 90 on any farther that
night. He made camp then and there
so that he might look upon the gulch
by the early sunlight. The sun had
dropped beyond the distant peaks, and
there came the refreshing GOODNESS OF
California night.
A red bar of light across his eyes
awoke him to new day-the day Of
his life, This arrival at Good Luck
gulch was the elimination OF his ia
Tiers dreams and his own boyish
hopes. Now he was thirty-three and
the treasure might lie stiu uncovered.
Breakfast was a brief meal, and, with
his pack neatly rolled, once more he re-
Eumed his journey, silent, tense with
suppressed excitement. The pines dis
appeared TO give way to wind blown
cottonwoods and ragged rocks, and
then the trail dipped down toward the
west. He had passed over the summit,
and now the trail led down. He had
lost track Of the stream OF water. he
was of the right trail. Where had he
missed It?