St. Tammany farmer., 1921-12-24

Of a man hunting for dropped piece
| of money. Its sort o queer. Jeanle,s
been here, and the dogs been back ano
across a couple o times, as You car
see. But Fullerton hasn't crossed here
There's only the one set O tracks.
We made a wider search, with q
dead pine branch for torch, but
found no other tracks; in fact, the
gulch was quilted so deeply above and
below that there was no other prac-
ticable crossing place for horse. II
Jeanie had headed for the gulch-and
the hoof prints in the sand, and
Daddy's Identification Of them seemed
to prove this past any question OF
doubt-she had headed it alone. But
why had she been riding alone into
the depths of this uninhabited noun
tain wilderness?
Calm and self-contained as he usual.
ly was, could see, or rather feel, that
Daddy Hiram was growing increasing
~ nervous as we pushed on. l didn't
blame him; so far from it, I was shar-
ing the nervousness in full measure.
What were we going to find at the
end Of the trail?
It must have been at least two miles
beyond the damp sand patch that the
dim trail we had been following ended
abruptly at the abandoned mining
claim spoken Of by Daddy Hiranl-the
Haversack The starlight was bright
enough to show us what there was to
be seen, which wasn't much; couple
of tulnb!e-down shacks a shed that
had probably been the prospectors'
blacksmith shop, and tunnel mouth
that had once been securely boarded
I'D, but from which the bulkheaGing
was now partly fallen away
Once more Daddy hunted for a dead
pine branch and lighted torch. The
shacks were empty, Of course, and
while we did not go into the tunnel,
we could see, through the broken bulk
heading that it was half filled with
caved-in earth and broken stone. In
derfoot there was only the coarse
troop of cavalry might have passed
over 1t without leaving any visible
trail. Worse than all, Barney, the pie
faced collie, appeared now to be COM
pletely at fault. He was running
around In circles with his nose to the
ground; pretty plain indication that
he had lost the trail.
"I'll be bat-clawed and owl-hooted
If I know what-all to do next" Daddy
puzzled.
He hadn't any the best of me there,
and it was precisely at this point that
the split-faced dog took it into his
head to add another snarl to the knot
ted tangle. After galloping around all
over the place half a dozen times,
shifting at everything in sight, he had
finally come to stand with his nose
at a crack In the tunnel boarding. The
next instant he had leaped through
the hole where the planks had fallen
away, and presently we heard him
whining and scratching behind the
bulkhead.
don't know about Daddy Hiram's
heart, but I do know that mine was
doing fip-t1aps and back somersaults
when we ran up to see what the dog
had found in the tunnel. For a half
second after Daddy thrust his torch
through the hole was afraid to look
scared stiff at the thought of what
might see. When l did look, saw the
dog digging frantically at the heap Of
caved-in earth, and, Of course to my
disordered Imagination, the hole in
which he was burroWing transformed
itself at once into newly made grave.
"Good God!" I gasped; and then:
"Look, Daddy-right under your
torch !"
He looked and staggered back, and
would have dropped the blazing pine
branch If I hadn't caught 1t from his
hand For what he saw, and what l
had seen, was the unmistakable print,
in the soft earth just inside Of the
planking, of one Of Jeanie's brown
leather riding-boots. =M..:.
In another half-second we were both
In the tunnel and Daddy was heaving
the dog aside from the hole he was
paving out in the earth fall. Snatch
Ing up a broken-handled shovel that
the former tunnel drivers had thrown
away, the old man flung himself mad
ly upon the dirt pile, and since there