Evening star., 1921-12-25
ZONE CHRISTMAS / REMEMBER"

weary.
"Our original party increased to
about a dozen after we went into
master of woodcraft. and Levi Dodd,
an old-time prospector, both natives
Fof the hills. and as familiar with
the country as though they had made
it. Our only neighbors, nearer than
the distant cattle ranches. were Van
tine and Miller and their families, ad-
venturous small ranch people.
Ordinarily we might have expect
ed a month or more of good weather
in which to establish permanent win
ter camp, bringing in supplies, and
do the preliminary prospecting nee
essary to determine the point of per-
manent winter drifting on the min
eral vein, but the bottomless trails
resulting from the rapid melting of
the heavy early snow, followed by
days of storm and intense cold, rem
dered travel to distant supply points
exceedingly difficult, and weather
conditions seriously interfered with
the work on the winter cabins and
hampered prospecting.
"The middle of December found us
with cabins half-finished and work on
the permanent drift only fairly under
way, with food supplies of all kinds
practically exhausted. The tobacco
users, who constituted most of the
personnel of the party. were restive
and almost mutinous.
"Curley, the invincible, with our
splendid four-horse team, was start
ed over the ffty-tive-mile road to
Custer for supplies. But four days
later. in the midst Of bowling briz-.
zard Curley and his four staggered
into camp. plumb beat out. Helrs
canyon, twenty-five miles on the road
to Custer, almost impossible at any
time, choked with ice and snow, pre-
sented a barrier that even Curley and
his sturdy outfit could not surmount.
1.-THE next morning a cowboy from
the Y. T. ranch rode into camp to de-
liver mail which he had been gooll
enough to bring in from Sundance a
few days before. The only letter that
interested me added to the gloom Of
the general situation. 1t indicated
nation of circumstances it was quite
probable that the funds on which we
had been depending for our winter
campaign would not be forthcoming,
at once raising the question whether
we would work on and hope for the
best or get out before the roads were
entirely blocked.
CON the heels of the mail courier
came Big Mike, from the job on
tief' had stolen all our nails and
spikes. Such, on investigation, proved
to be the case. The kegs and boxes
containing these supplies SO essential
to finishing the cabins had been placed
under a bough shelter near the main
cabin. Not more than a dozen of our
entire nail supply remained. And so
the work on the doors, the floors and
the windows and the remaining por-
tion of the roof Of the main cabin
stopped. Vantine tried to get through
to Sundance on horseback for a few
nails and some tobacco, but the snow
around the base Of Inyankare was too
deep.
"Curley thotght he could get
through to Deadwood with Vantine's
sleigh If he could get his loaded
sleigh up Salt Creek hill, five miles
from the camp, on his return. So 1
started Curley out with Dodd for
Swamper, and we eased them down
the hill with ropes and bade them
godspeed on their sixty-mile trip to
Deadwood, promising to have a look
out on the top of Pisgah to signal
their return, and to be at the bottom
Of the hill when they reached there,
with block and tackle to pull them
up. Looking out across the snowy
reaches of the Canyon Springs prairie
and beyond toward the old, abandoned
follow, 1t did not look as though there
was any possibility Of their getting
through, or, If they did, that they
could get back.
1--WE had to have tobacco, whether
we had anything to eat or not, SO the
boys said, and Big Mike volunteered
to try and get through to Sundance
on my saddle horse Prince. Rrince
was big and powerful and had never
failed, but Mike was a heavyweight
on a snowy road.
'"The weather settled into that
sullen gloom that is the most dis
spiriting of all northern winter
weather. I began to plan the aban-
donment of the enterprise. And then
a trif1ing incident occurred that
proved the turning of the tide.
'Vantine's small boy, Bill, flushed
with excitement and all out ofbreath.
came rushing to the drift where was
working, followed by his big New
foundland dog, shouting Come, see
what I found" Following the boy
along the slippery hillside to the foot
of a giant pine, which grew straight
against an overhanging, messy, bank.
they led me to the recently uncovered
cache of an Industrious family of pack
rats How Rover barked and Billy's
eyes bulged, for they had found the
thief. There they were, not only our
nails and spikes, but a fine assort-
ment of new, bright tin cups. tin
spoons and other kitchen parapher-
MALTA, which had been carried away
by these Industrious rodents from one
of the unfinished cabins.
X X X X
tsIJOW hammers rang after the re-
eovery Of the spoil and how