Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1918-09-07

RaWlS had fOrgOCten that there re- mained another of the outlaw band with which he had to cope. Drant, in the mountains searching for the mine when Rawls had left him to re- turn to town, where he had intended to meet Won Bleck. Now, as Gwyn and Nan approached, Drant was but a short distance away. He was at- tracted by the sound of their horses, and saw them coming up the trail. As they halted by the pines to consult the chart, he hid and decided to watch them. The two dismounted, fastened their horses, and commenced the dan. gerous undertaking of fording the river which separated them from the entrance to the mine. Drant, creep ing cautiously behind the underbrush which hid him, followed.
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 Outside, the limbs of the pines creaked in the mountain wind with dry, cracking sound. It was very dark and very lonesome in the thick ness of the forest, but impenetrable blackness of the solitude of the h'lls reached neither the eyes nor into the feeling of the little gathering in the brilliantly lighted room of the Lost Mine hotel. John Gwyn and Nan Lawton were conversing both happily and seriously with a tall, robust in- dividual, a stranger to Gwyn. The stranger, whose features, were firm in their expression of sternness and determination, was William Casey known to the community as "Bil!,' strong, sturdy, Irish-American who had come to Lost Mine a few years previous in search of his fortune and was still searching.
 eve located the nine this after. noon," Gwyn said, aui his smile re- flected the enthusia,n revealed in his voice. "It is now imperative that I arrange for the immediate develop. ment of the mine and the sh pment of the cinnabar to New York. The or ganization which I am representing is eager that no time be lost, and the days that have been consumed by our strife with the Central Powers, in the form of Won Bleck, have been pre-. cious ones. We must catch up now.
 "Mr. Casey, since you are at the head of the vigilance committee hunt ing down the murderers of Don Carlos and Yaqui Joe, the developments of the future will depend greatly upon you."
 "My warrants ,, replied Casey, "call for only Rawls ,ad Drant. Von Bleck for some reason beyond my jurisdic- tion, is not includel."
 'If you get the men you are after It's pity that didn't hold Rawls when I had him-Von Bleck will be practically helpless to interfere with us," Gwyn said. ":is soon as opera tions are begun I am going to install you as manager of the mine. Nan tells me that you have had great deal of experience along these lines and are just the man need. I hope that by that time, Nan will be my wife. We plan to be married within the next few weeks, yol know" During the few months that im- mediately followed the little town of Lost Mine enjoyed the greatest boom in it's history. It was fairly alive with busy, bustling humanity, hurry ing to and fro, each absorbed with hls own important mission. The village, from the town proper to the mine, lost as it was, amidst the wilds of the un- settled and dismal Sierras, resembled a busy ant-hill with thousands of scurrying ants, set ;n the center of an open field. And prosperity came with new life. The opening of the miIe had created a demand for men , and the majority of the towns idle population was employed in the task of taking tfc cinnabar from the mine and pre- pairing it for shipment to the East. As result, the neighborhood was scattered over with little wooden houses, hI'lt ir the quickest and cheap CSl 'iitlii' SI poS iOiC. '"yH dllu Ndli, who had been married as they had planned, lived in picturesque cabin but a short distance from the main shaft of the mine. Their wedding had Teen one of the most important, anl SI:ely the gayes-, event of the year. Practically the entire town had turned out at the Lost Mine hotel, and from that time on, the young couple had been the most popular folk in town.
 Casey, soon after his appointment as the head of the vigilance committee had taken up his duties with an ardor that was not merely inspired by his desire for work. He had been stim- ulated by natural love of fight, and the problem of ridding Lost Mine of Drant and Rawls and putting a stop to the outrages caused by Won Bleck offered many opportunities for him to satisfy tho love He had