Show THE prospector AND IUS I US BURRO ff Jl ff by will C higgins in my last conversation said the prospector to his burro 1 I gave gare you an account of the windup wind up of our adventures in the discovery and sale of the old spanish mine in in the blue mountains and how when we returned to the camp of the chief of the indian tribe in the north end of the range lueta and Top feather were wed we d while jim and his bis squaw had decided to remain with the indians until my return from the outside the date set for my return was ninety days but believe me I 1 had tired of cities and towns crowded streets and dyspeptic diet long before the allotted time had passed and then I 1 had a hankering to see my burro your mother whom I 1 had turned out to pasture on the border near a little town against my return and so was on my way to t 0 rejoin my friends friend s when but two months had barely passed at the little town I 1 found your mother fat and slick sli 1 ck while a little baby burro trotted at her side ide s which proved to me that comet something hing in the climate had agreed with her at any rate she was mighty proud of her offspring and figured that it was the best ever at bisbee I 1 had fallen in with a young missourian a lad of about twenty five who stood six feet in his stockings and who was vas a mighty good fellow he was a dead shot as fearless as a lion and would as soon tackle a bear or a wild cat as to eat his supper he was seeking 6 adventure and so I 1 hired him to come along with me offering him two hundred bucks a month and found iid and I 1 was mighty glad before my return that I 1 had had him with me for he was a social reliable and able man arthur duck buckingham was his name line r rather ather a hi high h sound ing cognomen but lie he fitted tile the name and was a heap of help to me at all times before starting out from the border I 1 fitted arthur out with all necessary equipment including rifle bedding and a burro and when we left for the blue mountains the beasts of burden were so heavily loaded they could hardly travel for I 1 had with me a number of presents for jim and his squaw lueta and Top feather and also for the chief w d no mishap en route for 1 knew the country count pretty well by this time and inside of three days the highest peaks of the blue moun bains loomed above us at the little stream at the base of the range where jim and I 1 had found gold bearing gravel on our first trip in I 1 did some more prospecting a and nd art for I 1 had shortened buckinghamm Bucking hams egiy en name was wild with excitement when 1 I showed him the long string of colors in n my pan for he had never had any experience in placer mining and he was in no hurry to leave the place so we camped there for two or three days I 1 could hardly get the boy to take a rest so anxious was he to pan more gold old and he thought it might be the best policy to stop where we were and go no further but I 1 told him of the pr prospects further on however I 1 let him stake out a group of four claims which he named the buckingham group and the name afterwards became famous for the buckingham is known to this day as one of the greatest placer diggings 6 in the southern country we fished one day and caught some beauties w while hile I 1 was fortunate in bringing down a fine deer which was as fat as butter this helped out our larder considerably andee and we took some of the meat along with us when we continued contina ed our journey the way was difficult for it was now a steep climb and we had to move slowly because of our heavily burros on the second day up 4 however we came in sight of the indian camp and you may be sure that when we ve made our presence known we were accari ed a most hearty welcome jini jim was quitt quite overjoyed for although he had taken taked a indian squaw for wife he was ni mighty i 0 aty glad and he ma mad to see a white man again and to I 1 friends with art at once lueta k minute feather could ha hardly adly leave us fa for r a m and the indian n so glad they were to see us abe I 1 that his pipe so chief offered me As full well his feelings towards me be for reserved art he became unusually india B 1 of the W number was aware that a over him tile the once maidens were giving when noo n 1 in n great shape it was about beet fea feast st had a and after we reached camp the fully satisfied sn spread for us and we had clim bill bin b inner man only as mountain climbing ap demands we were ass assigned i t ned to our consisting of a large the of a home bo we found all the comforts had wilderness on one side of us its jini ji da d hopfe Top feathe ather lodge while lueta and their wi wigwam t on the other cog before iler here e we made q quite alte a stay the arc cOntil continued lue d tinning journey our for we were amigh mi aty c both 1 jio I as IS D with our indian friends and ath at hat fixed for life li ife and well myself were in ine 11 we had made out of the old spam ipanis our bot t felt there was no need to hurry all the t this time being for adventure aDZa b 0 oy keeping an eye out for another the meantime we fished and went out frequently for large game jim and art being past masters in the use of the rifle the result being that the whole camp was kept in fresh meat through their efforts the day finally came however when we started out in search of the old mine Top feather had told us about this he said was in another range further on and which was even rougher b and more difficult to penetrate than the blue mountains our party consisted of jim art and myself Top feather and the two squaws squads for it was decided to take the women along to do the cooking three of the indian maids wanted to go also and I 1 am sure they would have broken their backs for art for it was to be near him I 1 knew that they wanted to accompany us but 1 I vetoed this however as this was to be no joyride joy ride and I 1 did not think it best to imperil too many in making the trip as we might meet with conditions not generally associated with a pink tea affair and so with our burros heavily and with each of us carrying quite a pack we started out before sunup sun up one morning being followed b by quite a string of redskins red skins to the foot of the range in the valley late in the at af hernoon ter noon we camped on the banks of quite a large stream where art was anxious to prospect for placer gold I 1 let him make the effort just to please him and believe me I 1 was as much surprised as he when he came to me an hour later with a chunk of native gold in his hand as large as a hens egg I 1 was all keyed up over the find and so was jim but Top feather made light of the discovery and claimed that in the old mine for which we were headed the gold could be taken out in solid slabs this statement diminished our placer mining fever to some extent which disappointed art considerably sider ably he wanted to stay and prospect further but finally decided to go on with us first putting up a to mark the place of the placer discovery after leaving the stream we headed for the crater mountains for so the next range was galled called for its top was crested by a huge dome which in all probability was the out let et of an extinct volcano As we neared the e range oge the traveling became very rough and we had to pick our way in single file Top op feather leading at a turn in the dim trail buckingham ck ingham saw a fine buck some distance tance away that was watching us with evident curiosity rio sity the buck moved as we noticed him and was hid by a clumps clump of moun tain n oak art immediately left us in order to 0 set get a good shot and we all waited for him m to come back with his game it was eve ven now late in the afternoon and almost before etore we knew it it was quite dark still our ur hunter failed to return and we began to set get quite anxious for we had not heard hear d him m shoot and although we hollered and fired our guns only the echoes answered us ill j the flurry that followed we found that rol feather was missing also and no one could account for his absence it was now too dark to see and we camped where we were knowing it would be useless to make a search for the missing ones until daylight returned and so we watched and waited and with the first beams of d daylight made preparation to find our friends who had so mysteriously disappeared just what had happened to art and jim I 1 will tell you in our next after supper talk 1 I want to tell you old long ears concluded the prospector 1 I cannot remember when I 1 ever spent such a wretched night before I 1 was worried beyond description for I 1 would have given all I 1 possessed if the lost ones were only with me unharmed and there you are and then some |