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


specify.
AS may be imagined, many men tried to get
R,x,hlett to show them the location Of his gold
eff anybody wants my mine" he would say
s1et them go out and hunt for it like / do
TeOple have laughed at me and called me
fool The plains of the Pecos and the peaks OF
The GuadaIupes have been my only friends. They
are my home When die want to be buried
with the Guadalupes in sight of my grave on
one side and the Pecos on the other. am
going to carry this secret with me SO That 1or
years and years after am gone people VIII re-
member me and talk about the rich gold mine
old man Sublett found 1 will leave some
thing behind me to talk about"
Sublett was trailed, spied upon, laid for
but no lobo wolf was ever more willy in avoiding
traps than he was in avoiding detection. His
habit was to leave town at some unexpected
time camp on the Pecos a day or two, and then
strike out from camp during the night. He
might be gone only few days; he might be
gone for months 1t is said that at one time
he kept his money in w. E. Connels Bank, at
Midland, about 80 miles east of Odessa.
Where Sublett turned his raw gold into cash
nobody has explained, but the banker came to
observe that when the mysterious old prospect
Ors deposit ran low he invariably made trip,
and soon after his return invariably banked
hard money" Of course, there are people
who say that Sublett never owned q check
book in his life; some people will talk. Any
how, as the best of the takers tell it, Banker
Connen and a cowman by the name of George
Gray offered Sublett $4,000 II he would show
them the source Of his cash Sublett just
laughed at them. why" he replied, IT could
90 out and dig up that much in less than
weeks time :.
engaged Jim Flanagan to follow Sublett on
the next trip. Subjects funds in the bank were
running low and he was due to pull out" any
hour. For two weeks Lee Driver, who was then
keeping livery stable in Midland, fed q horse
for Flannigan. Then one day word came that
Eublett had left Odessa in q hack pulled by two
buFros. F1annigan followed his tracks through
Tire sand for so miles west along the railroad
track to PecOs, ON the Pecos River, and then
as miles up the river. There the trail played
Out-stopped- Quit-just disappeared. How any
West Texan could lose the plain trail Of hack
In soft soil uncut by other tracks is almost in
conceivable, but lose the TRAN Fiannigan did.
He was not the first or the last man to lose II.
He was still riding around trying TO pick IL
mp when he happened to meet man who had
just seen suhlett travelling down the river
toward Peeas. He turned back, but before he
reached Odessa the cunning old prOspect0r had
already arrived. He had been gone from
town only four days." and had In that time
Travelled at least $50 miles. Very good travel
ing for pair Of burros pulling hack through
sand dunesl Evidently Sublett had not got
even into the foothills Of the Guadalupes ON
this trip. Probably he had q cache on the
PecOs. Needless to say, he brought IN . sack
OF gold.
But despite his secretive ways, sublett Oc-
easiOnally relented. and before he died took
several people more or Less into his confidence.
Once when he was coming out Of the Guadalupes
ne met IN old cTOny named Nike Wilson; he
must have been feeling almost insanely gener-
Gus. for he gave his friend such minute diree-
tions for reaching the mine that Wilson az
tuALy got to it. There he emptied prOvisiOns
out Of . tOw-sack and cramned into It as much
ore IS he could carry home.
The trip wore Wilson out, and as soon as he
reached town he went ON q spree that lasted
for three weeks. When he sobered up and tried
to 90 to the mine second time, he found
himself utterly bewildered. Old Sublett lust
laughed at him and refused to direct him
again.
IF anybody wants that mine" he said, "1et
him 60 out and hunt for it like did"
Years ago Mike Wilson died IN o hut within
sight Of the Guadalupes, trying vainly until
The end to recall the way TO Suhlett's lost gold.
Another time, some men at pecoS finally after
much persuasion, ribbed up" Sublett to show
them the mine. They felt 50 gay and prosper-
SsB that they loaded big assortment Of fancy
food into their chuck wagon to supplement the
regular camp supplies The first night out
Sublett became III with ptomaine poisoning He
was probably already sick from having prom
3sed to give away his secret At any rate, he
claimed that some one had tried to poison him,
became as stubborn as a government mule and
refused to 60 on step farther
Perhaps. though there was an independent
shaTer Of his secret, who was unknown even TO
Sublett. Or maybe Sublett discovered the
HhArer and acted as his jealousy might have
prompted him to act out in the wild Loneliness
Of the Guadalupes. Every man Is entitled to
mis- own conclusion from the testimony offered
~ p. H. Hardesty. who used TO ranch IN n
PasO County.
Of Lucius Arthur, known better as