Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-11

three days.
The third day, just after dark he drove into
camp. As soon as supper was over and the
hunters had bedded down, Stewart asked what
luck did you have?"
For answer Sublett picked up a dried deer
hide and put 1t, flesh side up on the ground,
where the slow fire cast light over 1t and also
where some boxes of provisions hid it from the
eyes Of any man who might be awake on his
pallet Then he poured nuggets out on 1t from
a tobacco sack Of the 15-cent size, which was
jamn1ed full of gold Stewart ran his hand
through them and scattered them over the hide.
You do not seem to have any small nuggets"
he observed
what" Sublett rejoined, would be the use
Of picking up q small nugget when with one
more rake in the gravel I could bring up q
big one?"
IN the morning Sublett left. He had gath
cred his last nuggets The next that
Stewart heard Of him he was dead Stewart
soon afterward attempted 10 find the mine but
failed What has become Of him or what point
Of the Guadalupes" he gazed at through the
long spyglass from an unidentified blue mound"
Is unknown 1t turned out as Sublett had pre-
dicted:
Come with me and win show YOU the
gold" he had said but If you go alone even
after have pointed out its general location
you viii never be able to find it."
So far as is known Sublett never wavered
again IN his determination to hold fast to the
secret. When he was dying his sOn-in-law. Sid
Pitts Of Roosevelt. N. Mex, tried to get him to
hand over the golden key he had clutched so
long. Apparently the old mamie was 90
started TO ten him how 70 10 to the mine
FIRST, he began. you cross the PecOs at"
Inen ne broke on with. Hell. it amt no usel
Tney'd beat you out OF It even If you found it ="
EV1oenty 1t was not the phianthrOpic desire
20 save his kim from the worries of wealth hut
his tenacious determination 10 keen "the
damned human race" from sharing It and
from Earning what he had spent 50 many
happily contrary years in Withholding that
caused old Sublett to keep silent TO the END.
Subjects death occurred IN 1892 He was
buried m Odessa, little too far away from the
GuadalupeS 10 realize his wish for q grave
within sight Of them Certainly however he
LEFT behind him something to talk about. In
the wide, wide lands Of the Pecos, from its
mouth far down ON the Rio Grande to old Fort
Sumner, IN New Mexico there is hardly q town.
squatter's cabin or q rancher's home in which
the story Of Subjects mine has not been told
ProspectoFs By the score have looked for it.
ana proSpectors as Wen as many men who are
not prospectors are stin looking for il
Among the most constant seekers has been
Subjects son Roth, better known as Ross
This constancy is logical for Ross Sublett prob
ably knows more concerning the whereabouts
Of the mine than any other living man. When
he was q little past his ninth birthday his
father took him out to it. That was the only
time he saw it. but see it he did. Five years
later, when the Secretive old prospectOr lay on
his deathbed. Ross, Of SUFFICIENT age by that
time to feel responsibility, tried to get him to
describe the way to the gold. The dying man
little gentler to him than he was to the som
in-law-merely mumbled: tits too late Any
description would be useless. You'll Just have
to 90 out and hunt it down Ike did"
An accommodating disposition ON the part Of
Ross Suhlett to recount his childhood memories
has not dimmed them. Like the snnular rings
nj a hfa Ewaa-
ber and compass. He lives at Carlsbad, NJ Mex,
and is easy Of access. Should you interview
him, he would respond in this wise:
Eyes, have a distinct recollection of how
the mine looked The last stage to it, going
west from the Pecos, was always made on
horseback or with pack burros. It was down in
a crevice, and the only way to get to it was
by a rope ladder that my father always re-
moved as soop as he came up with the gold.
played around while he got the ore out of q
kind Of cave. I am confident the mine is
within miles Of . spring IN the Rnstler Hills :"
THE Rustler Hills are a good 40 miles east
Of Guadalupe Peak, but more than one
tradition has made them the site Of Subjects
gold. Not long after 6ub1ett died . New Mexico
sheriff Familiarity known as Cicero. while pros
pecting In these hills. met up with cowboy
called Grizzly Bill.
You'd as wen pull in your horns, Cicero"
bawled out Grizzly IS soon as the two men,
both ON horseback came within hailing dis
lance Of each other. Tive found Subjects gold
and I'm ON my way to spend it."
Grizzly went on to PecOs, Tex. He rode into
town shooting his six-shooter at the sky and
yelling. Hide out. little ones; yer daddys come
home" He got ON high lonesome" displayed
his gold. and while trying TO show on. on q
Wild horse was thrown in such q way as to
have his neck broken. Nobody who knows
anything about the matter, however has ever
supposed that Grizzly Bin found the lost Sub
lett mine. In fact, all he found was q nugget
near q spring-where, more than likely Sublett
once had eamped and lost it.