Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1917-01-04
1T thought I'd burst!" said he.

1T thought I'd BURST" said he.
And then he had torn off the belt
and had shot to the surface,
Its down there" he said more calm
~, every COMPOUNDED yellow grain Of
it." lie laughed a little. "Brokc!" said
he. NO New York in mine.'
The crowd murmured Sympntlleti-
cally.
"Gol darn it, boys, it's rotten hard
luck!' cried IL big miner, with some
heat. Who'll chip in?"
At the words Johnny recovered him
self, and his customary ease of man
ner returned.
"Much obliged, boys" said he, but
I've still got my health. I don't need
charity. Guess I've beer doing the
baby act, But | was clean mad at
that rotten old rail. Anyway" he
laughed, there need nobody say in
the future that there's no gold in the
lower Sacramento. There is. | put it
there myself"
We drew up to San Francisco early
III the afternoon. and we We're, to put
it mildly. thoroughly astonishrd at the
change in the place. TO begin with,
we now landed at Il long wharf pro-
jecting from the foot of Sacramento
street instead of by lighter. This
wharf was crowded by Il miscellaneous
mob. collected apparently with no 9th
or purpose than to view our arrival.
Among them We saw many specialized
t--,,o, j1ot l.l I>>,, l.,l:. " ,
city OF a few months awo-Sllarp. keen.
b~usineSslikc clerks whom one could
not imagine at the rough work of the
mines; loafcrs whom one could not i'm
a@inc at any work at all: %diSSolutc,
hard faced characters without the bold
freedom OF the road agents: younE
green looking chaps who evidently had
much to learn and who We're exceed
insly likely to pay their little fortunes,
il not their lives. in the learning. On
4 hGgSllcad at onc side Il street preach
or WAS declaiming.
Johnny had by now quite recovered
his spirits. l think he was helped
greatly by the discovery that he still
possessed his celebrated diamond.
"Not broke YET said he triumphant
ly. You see ! was Il wise boy after
all. Wish ! had two of Them"
We Gi>emharHrtl, fought oar way to
II slice and discussed our plans.
FLOCK the diamond first" said John
NY. who ~rpsolutcly refused to borrow
from mo: then hair cut. shave. bath.
buy some more clothes. grub, drink
and hunt up Talbot and see what he's
done with the dust we sent down from
lIansman's."
That program seemed good. We
Strolled toward shore. with full inten-
ton of putting it into immediate cx-
e%cution. "lmmeIintc" proved to be a
relative term. There was too much to
see.
vt the land end OF the wharf we ran
into the most extraordinary collection
OF vehicles apparently in an incX1rica-
BILE tanSlc, that was further compli-
Gated by the fact that most of the
horses were only half broken. They
kicked and reared; their drivers dashed
ana wore the wagons claShcd togeth-
er. There seemed no possible way out
OF the mess, and yet somehow the
wagons seemed to get loaded and to
draw out into the clear. Occasionally
the drivers were inclined to abandon
their craft II do battle with the load
ed ends of their whips, but always a
p~eacemaker descended upon them in
the person of q large voluble individ-
ual, in whom l recognized my former
friend and employer, John McGlynn.
Evidently John had no longer a mo-
nopoly of the teaming business, but as
evidently what he said went With this
wild bunch.
Most Of the wagons were loading
goods brought from the interiors of
storehouses alongside the approach to
the wharf. III these ~storehouSes we
recognized the hulls of ships, but so
shored up, dismantled and cut into by
doors II stories that of their original
appearance only their general shapes
remained. There was a great number
of these ~storehouses along the shore,
some of them being quite built about
by piles and platforms, while two We're
actually inland several hundred feet.
l read the name Mantle on the stern
Of one of them and found it to have
acquired in the landward side Il square
false front. 1t was at that time used
at a hotel.
"Looks as if they'd taken hold Of
Talbot's idea hard" observed Yank.
CONTINUED Next Week.1