The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1914-07-24

NAMED mystery.
Whether, like the old Eagle Tail of
frontier fable. 1t was so rich that only
the eagles head was needed to turn
the chunks into twenty-dollar gold
pieces; or whether, like many other
frontier mines, 1t was nothing but
hole in the ground, was matter still
to be settled. And Bud, for one, was
determined to settle it quickly.
Come on" he said, as Phil hest
tated to open up the way to the lead;
I'VE got month, maybe less, to get to
the bottom Of this; and then the hills
will be lousy with rebels. II they's
nothing here, we want to find out
about 1t quick and skip-and If we
strike 1t, by grab, they amt enough
red-faggers in Sonora to pry me
loose from 1t. So show these hombres
where to work and we'll be up against
rock by the end of the week."
The original Eagle Tail tunnel had
been driven into the side of a steep
hill; so steep, In fact, that the loose
shale stretched in long shoots from
the base of the frowning porphyry
dikes that crowned the tops of the
hills to the bottom of the canyon. On
either side of the discovery gulch
sharp ridges, perforated by the gopher
holes Of the Mexicans and the ancient
workings Of the Spaniards, ran d.
rectly up the hill to meet the contact.
But it was against the face of the big
ridge itself that Kruger had driven
his drift and exploded his giant blast
Of dynamite, and the whole slope had
been altered and covered with a slide
Of rock.
Against this slide, in the days when
they were marking time, Bud and his
pardner had directed their energies,
throwing the loose stones aside, build
ing up walls against the slip. and
clearing the way to the solid schist.
There, somewhere beneath the tumble
Of powder-riven rock, lay the ledge
which, If they found it, would make
them rich; and now with single-jack
and drill, they attacked the last huge
fragments, blasting them into pieces
and groveling deeper until they could
strike the contact, where the schist
and porphyry met and the gold spray
had spewed up between.
It was slow work; slower than they
had thought, and the gang of Next
cans that they had hired for muckers
were marvels Of ineptitude. Left to
themselves, they accomplished moth
ing, since each problem they encoun-
tered seemed to present to them some
element of insuperable difficulty, to
solve which they either went into eau
Gus or waited for the boss. Mean
while they kept themselves awake by
smoking cigarettes and telling stories
about Bernardo Bravo.
To the Mexicans of Sonora Bernardo
Bravo was the personification Of all
the malevolent qualities-he being a
bandit chief who had turned first gem
eral and then rebel under Madero-
and the fact that he had at last been
driven out of Chihuahua and therefore
over into Sonora, made his malevo-
lence all the more imminent.
Undoubtedly, somewhere over to the
east, where the Sierras lowered like a
blue wall, Bernardo and his outlaw
followers were gathering for a raid,
and the raid would bring death to So
nora.
He was bad man, this Bernardo
Bravo, and II half Of the current sto-
ries were true, he killed men when
ever they failed to give him money,
and was never too hurried to take a
fair daughter of the country up behind
him, provided she took his fancy.
Yes, surely he was a bad man-but
that did not clear away the rock.
For the first week Phil took charge
Of the gang, urging, directing and ca
joling them, and the work went mer-
rily on, though rather slowly. The
Mexicans liked to work for Don Felipe,
he was SO polite and spoke such good
Spanish; but at the end Of the week
1t developed that Bud could get more
results out of them.
Every time Phil started to explain
anything to one Mexican all the 9TH
ers stopped to listen to him, and that
took time But Buds favorite way of
directing man was by grunts and
signs and bending his own back to
the task. Also, he refused to under
stand Spanish, and cut off all long
winded explanations and suggestions
by an impatient motion to go to work,
which the trabajadores obeyed with
shrugs and grins.
So Don Felipe turned powder-man
and blacksmith, sharpening up the
drills at the little forge they had fash
toned and loading the holes with dy-
Mantle when 1t became necessary to
break rock, while Bud bossed the
unwilling Mexicans.
In an old tunnel behind their tent
they set heavy gate, and behind it
they stored their precious powder.
Then came the portable forge and the
blacksmith shop, just inside the mouth
of the cave, and the tent backed up
against 1t for protection. For If there
is any one thing, next to horses, that