The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1922-02-16
CHAPTER XII.
Around Robin Hoods Barr.

o~NAT >'~
of the four miles between the CHINA
bar and the railroad station. the dog
branched off to the left along the
mountain on a road that was little
better than a bride path through the
forest, and which, for the time, kept
its level on the slope, neither ascend
ing nor descending.
How about IL, Daddy?" / asked.
where does this trail go"
Give it time enough, it comes out
at the old Haversack, on GreaSer
mountain"
ENDS there. you mean?"
You said it; far as l know, it ends
there"
what is the HaverSuck?'
1T amt, nothin', now. Used to be a.
gold prospect eight r ten year ago.
Never got far enough along, to be a
mine, they tell me-"
1t was certainly singular that the
dog should be leading us to an aban-
doned mining project, but Barney
seemed to know perfectly we'll where
he VAS going.
In n of the gulch headings there
was a patch Of wash sand in what was,
in wet weather, Il runway for water,
but. which was now only a strealnless
ravine with d few damp spots in 1t.
Here Daddy called a halt, and while
the dog sat down and yaWned at US
and otherwise manifested his impa-
thence at the delay, the old man gath
ered a few ~pine-calles and twigs,
struck a match and lighted a fire. eau
tioning me meanwhile not to walk Oh
the damp sand patch.
| hadn't the slightest idea Of what
he was driving at, and he didn't eX-
plain; but after the fire had blazed
up enough to light the surroundings a
bit, he went down upon his hands and
knees and began to give an imitation
Of a man hunting for a dropped piece
of money. Its sort O queer. Jeanie's
been here, and the dogs been back and
across a couple @ times, as you u
see. But Fullerton hasn't crossed here.
There's only the one set o. tracks,"
We made a wider search, with a
dead pine branch for a 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 a horse. If
Jeanne 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 mad 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
ly nervous as we pushed on. / didn't
blame him so far from it, | was Shar-
ing the nervousness in full measure.
What were we going to find at the
end of the trail?
1t 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 Hiram-the
Haversack. The starlight was bright
enough to show us what there was to
be seen, which wasn't much a couple
of tulnb'e-doWn shacks, a shed that
had probably been the prospectors'
that had once been securely boarded
up, but from which the b%ulkheading
was now partly fallen away.
Once more Daddy hunted for a dead
pine branch and lighted a 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 filed with
caved-in earth and broken stone. Un-
derfoot there was only the coarse
gravel of the tunnel spoil, and a full
troop of cavalry might have passed
over it without leaving any visible
trail. Worse than all, Barney, the pie
faced collie, appeared now to be CON-
! pletely at fault. He was running
around in circles with his nose to the
ground a pretty plain indication that
he had lost the trail.
"Ill be bat-clawed and o%wI-hooted
if l know what-an to do next Daddy
puzzled.
/ He hadn't any the best of me there.
and 1t was precisely at this point that
the spiit-faced dog took 1t into his
| head to add another snarl to the knot
ted tangie. After galloping around all
over the place half a dozen times,
shifting at everything in sight, lie had
finally come to q stand with his nose
at a crack I'm the tunnel boarding. The
next instant he had ieaped 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. hut I do know that mine was
doing fip-flaps and back somersaults
when we ran mp to see what the dog
had found I'm the tunnel. For d half
second after Daddy thrust his torch
through the hole i was afraid to look
scared stir at the thought OF what
might see. When I did look, + saw tks
dog digging franticaIly at the heap 81
cayedIn earth, and, o1 course III my
disordered imagination, the hole ID
which he WIS burrowing transformed
itself at once Into i newly made grave,
Coed God x gasped; ma then
4Look. Daddy--rfsht under y0ul
torch
~ lacked ma staggered back. md
would have dropped the blazing plu1