The Adair County news., 1921-12-27
'ECoPYRIGHT By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
SYNOPSIS.

nnos MS snare OF the estate, valued al
something like $4,000. lies in a safe re-
pository," latitude and longitude de-
scribed. and that is all. 1t may be ident-
ned by the presence nearby of a brown
and dog with a split face. half black
and half white. Stanford at first regards
the beQuest as joke, but after considera-
lion sets out to find his legacy.
CHAPTER lion his way to Denver,
the city nearest the meridian described
In his grandfather's Will. Stanford hears
from a fellow traveller a story having to
do with a flooded mine.
CHAPTER HI.-Thinking things over,
he begins to imagine there may be some
thing in his grandfather's beQuest worth
while, his idea finally centering on the
possibility of mine, as safe reposl-
tory" Recalling the narrative on the
train, he sscertatns that his fellow traN-
elsr was q mining engineer, Charles Bull
tion, but from other sources Broughton
learns enough to make him proceed to
Placerville, in the Red desert
That settled 1t with a vengeance,
you'd say. And yet it didn't. 1t
merely proved that Mr.. Charles Butler
ton had acquired a sudden excess Of
caution, and was probably cussing him
self plentifully for having been too
loose-tongued with a perfect stranger
swered my wire with a name that
meant just as much or as little as If
he'd said Alexander the Great" and
that was precisely the amount Of in
formation he had intended to convey.
Whether or not Bulierton's memo
randum agreement with my GRANDPA
ther would be binding upon me as
Grandfather Jasper's heir, was a ques-
don for the courts to decide. But one
thing was certain-that is, granting all
the assumptions; IL he should find the
mine and go to work on his unwater-
a1g scheme, he would have a grip on
things that might be handsomely trou-
biesome to shake loose.
After had argued it out thus far
the next step suggested itself In a
5infy. 1 must have a heart-tO-heart
talk with the cautious Mr.. Bullerton,
telling him who l was, and perhaps
giving him a chance to join forces
with me in the search, if it should
prove to be my grandfather's mine that
he was looking for. Grabbing this i'm
pulse by the neck, so to speak, took
the first train for Cripple Creek. The
next morning, when l made inquiry,
found that BullertOn had left town,
though where he had gone the bank
folks couldn't say.
Ihad gone into the chase more than
half for the sheer fun of it; pretty
much as the dog runs after the stick
you've flung into the bushes, and
which he hasn't much hope of finding
But now it was appealing to me as
more of a mans job. There was a
legacy; and however valueless it might
be in its present condition, it had once
been worth nearly half a milliOn-and
might be again. And half-milliOn is
a whole lot of money, when you come
TO consider it.
From what little the bank folks told
me it appeared that BulIerton was
fairly well known in Cripple Creel
and the region roundabout. Therefore
somebody in the near vicinity mus
know more than I had as yet beer
able to learn about the manner of his
disappearance and his probable desti
nation. My job was to find the some
body.
About the time / thought had ex
hausted all the combinations, found
the one particular BullertOn friend
was hunting for His name, as ! re
call it, was Hilton, or something like
that, and he was the superintendent o.
q big drainage-tunnel undertaking de
signed to unwater lot of floode(
mines on the hills above the tunne
site.
81 can give you little Information
but not much," was his answer to m,
inquiry. 'BullertOn is bughouse OF
the subject of a lost mine-not an un
usual disease in any mining country
and he has gone to hunt for 1t. H
has sketch map of the location, bu
nothing to tie 1t to. / didn't ask hin
where the location was-Or rather
where he thought ii was"
'Fhen, of course. you have no ide
"0er6 MS nunL WIS 10 DeSln = Il InFeN
In.
'-Only q guess. In our talk, he aske,
me if knew anything about a plac
called Placerville, in the Red desert
what sort of a town it was, and IL
man could outfit there for a prospect
ing trip. took it from this that h
might be heading for PlacerviIIe
though he didn't say that he was"
As you'd imagine, this was enoug
for me. The next morning was bacI
in Denver, figuring out the quickes
way to get to Placerville in the Re
desert. hoped BullertOn was on tn
true scent, but was nightly afraid h
wasn't-in which case /, too, would e
beautifully astray. But if he shoul
happen to be on the right track, theI
must beat him to the goal. True, h'
had a map TO guide him, and was tha
much better off than / was. But, OF
the other hand, had the girl, horse
and dog.