The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-04-15

on which the assessment renamed
unpaid would be sold at auction.
Had Mount Oddie sunk into the
ground, leaving an abysmal crater
in its place, the surprise would not
have been greater. Stunned was
the only name for the condition
created. The stock was pooled and
could not be sold. Their finish
had come. They felt a choking SEN
sation. Both men craved air, the
only commodity of the e~xecrated
camp which was not contaminated
by mans touch. In silence they
marched the length of Main street,
past the bright lights and gay life,
and took the trail meandering the
rocky hillside to their cabin at the
Halifax.
Ike Mckay felt no acrid wrath
rising in his gorge. He held him
self responsible for the tragedy, fol
he got Brad into the deal and
now saw his partner shorn of every
cent after months of stern endur-
ance swinging a hammer or bending
over the crank of a windlass.
For himself, Ike did not care. He
had shaved eight months for 800
a month, according to the terms OF
his brubstake, when all other min
ers were receiving their $3.50 a
shift. In a gethsemane of passion
the partners uttered strange vows
reeking with violence, but, after
the storm lulled, they grew philoso-
phical and solemnly accepted the
penalty for placing too much con-
fidence in men. They had found out
that the then Halifax was an assess
able company.
Recently when informed of the
big strike on the 1200-foot level of
the Halifax, Ike simply remarked:
81 hope it is true. Brad always
thought the Halifax would make a
mine"
What about your interest, Ike?"
the grey-haired and benevOlent-look-
ing old p%rospector was asked as he
stood behind a mahogany top in
Goldfield.
well, Keith and Kearns may do
the right thing. They always said
they would remember us if the
mine made good. Mehbe! Well
see. Well see."
The old mans memor is good,
and Senator Tom Kearns never fails
to visit likes repository when he
comes to Goldfield. The ray of
hope is diminishing as the years
wane, but there is cheer in cOntem-
plating what might have been done
with that pooled stock when 1915
IA bid in San Francisco a few
years ago.
Ike worked side by side with
Keith in the Osbiston shaft of the
Comstock when he was in the prime
of manhood in 1882, and also stood
until values pinched below the
Sutro tunnel level and there was
no encouragement to sink deeper.
Keith pulled out for Park City and
Mckay tried his luck at Tuscarora.
Keith was a great pump man and
soon found a job at the Anchor,
where the water was getting trou-
blesome and the pumps were taxed
to capacity to hold the flow in
check. But Dave was too clever to
remain on such a job, and when a
sectional contract on the Ontario
tunnel was let Dave had a block of
ground. That is where he met
Kearns, afterwards Senator Tom
kearns, magnate, banker and news
paper publisher, who gave battle to
the growing Mormon political inf1u-
ence in the stronghold of Zion.
Kearns could coax more out of
a machine drill than any other
runner in the tunnel, and Dave
Keith quickly took a liking to him.
This formed the foundation of a po-
litical and financial partnership that
has weathered the buffetings of thir-
Ages. While Keith was superin-
tendent of the Anchor Ike McKa2
drifted in from Tuscarora and Og-
den and was accosted with a grip
like a drill chuck, and his old PAL.
Dave Keith, told him to go to
work. Keith was dissatisfied.
Money was too slow in coming. He
h%ungered for more, but his hunger
was Unsuitable and not easily ap-
peased. A lease on the Mayfower,
the %progenitor of the Silver King
Coalition, was the first proof of his
Midas touch.
Keith and Kearns were together,