White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1920-05-02

for supplies and when | returned /
found Wetona dead, her scalp taken,
but our little girl was not there-she
had been stolen. We gathered a
searching party. but no trace could
we find of her. So | have come back
here with one desire, one hope. I
want to either find my child and see
her or learn il she is dead. If she
is dead | can go to my rave, but If
she is still alive | could never rest
in my grave"
| promised my help gladly 10 the
old fellow. He told me his name.
which vas Art Stebbins. and | told
him mine. which is Dan Brady. We
shook hands and then another silence
fell. | found myself p~ictnring the
agony of this old man who had come
back 10 find the lost loved one. And
| knew that |, too. would have felt
the same as he in the same cause.
After a time he again raised his
head and spoke. and there was a sob
in his voice: Boy, in this withered
old heart there is a certainty that
my daughter is yet living: there is
something there that urges me on to
find her. For ten years ! have neg
lected the search, God forgive me.
| was with my aged mother, in Mis-
souri,. But she is now dead; she died
at the age of one hundred and three
years. Now every tie is broken that
holds me to this world except the
finding of my daughter-then will I
be able to go to my grave in peace
1t was long after dark when thte
train arrived in Ely. / bid my friend
goodnight, promising to see him the
next day. 1 was anxious to get home
to my wife and daughter.
For many weeks VIC searched for
the missing child. / gave my help
freely. such as it was. but our search
was without result. Each day SEEM
ed to add a year to Mr.. Stebbins' life.
The sorrow and strain was proving
too much for him. One evening /
asked the Old Gentleman to my home
for dinner and to spend the evening.
Thereafter every evening he spent
with Winn and myself. Often he
would take little VIM on his knee
and rock her to sleep and sometimes
tears fell from his eyes on little
Winn. This puzzled the child very
much.
Then one evening when Mr.. Steb-
bins seemed to be more sorrowfui
laden than ever. Winn told him the
story of her search, thinking TO make
him forget his troubles. VIM did
not know who her father and mother
were. for when she was two years
old she had been left on the door
step. or rather she was found on the
door step. of the Padden's home,
where she had dropped from fatigue
after many huors of wandering. The
Paddens. after searching for her
parents and not finding them had
adopted the child as their own.
VIM had searched for years but had
found no trace of either her father
or mother. She told this story be-
cause she felt hat the search vas
a common bond between them. And
then VIM brought out the tiny
locket that had hung around her
neck. the only thing which could link
her with the past, but this had been
of very little use.
Mr.. Stebbin's just sat and stared
at the little locket which hung from
Winn's hand. Then he began to
shake as tho palsy had seized hin,
and then he took the strinket from
her hand and stared at it,. Then the
poor man sobbed. sobbed as only a
strong man does with deep raeking
sobs. After a time Vim soothed
him She mad sat down beside the Old
Gentleman and was soothing him as
she would a child when suddenly he
pushed back the hair from Wins
forehead and revealed an ugly jagged
scar which VIM vas always careful
TO hide beneath her hair.
Then he sobbed harder and cried.
My daughter, My daughter" until
he became so weak that VIM and |
carried him into the bed where he
fell asleep grasping her hands and
calling her daughter.
VIM and ! lay ~sleepless that night
wondering Was it possible that he
was really her father or had his mind
grown weak from his long sorrow?
Surely this must be the case for there
was no Indian blood in Winn's veins
and little VIM was very fair and
tradition say that the third genera
ton of mixed bloods of the darker
race always IN out even more
strongly than the first or second. No,
he could not be WINS father. This