Show OLD MISERY I By Hugh Pen dexter Continued from from- yesterday I With a a snarl Phelps leaped Into the hole and roughly pushed 1 Pretty Soon back and examined the pocket carefully He could scarcely credit his senses What he had believed to be a worthless claim was resting within two feet of of- an ancient riverbed river bed Try it again he huskily urged Pretty soon swung the pick and then fell to shovel shovel- ing He lie soon uncovered a 0 second pocket It was larger largel than the first By this time the hole was fringed several deep by excited excited ex ex- cited miners and there was no laughing now nosY in the strained gold gold- hungry faces Good lord yelled the Georgia man It makes maltes to the north It runs under old Hicks' Hicks ab abandoned claim And he turned and ran as if only speed could save saye his life Ure The ad adjoining adjoining adjoining ad- ad joining claim had been used as a dump for two years Others took the hint and endeavored endeavored endeavored ored to outrace the Georgia miner While Phelps wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared stupidly stupidly stupidly idly at the nuggets Tobin refilled I his pipe and lazily remarked Always the way Man digs ahole a ahole hole a few feet deep then quits when ten minutes' minutes more work would fetch him lm a. a fortune Go ahead Jim Next pocket oughter pan an out a bushel Stop Wait a minute gasped Phelps raising a trembling hand I sold this claim Ill Til buy it back I sold it for lor a a song Ill I'll buy it back for lor a good price More he uncovers the more you'll pay chuckled Tobio No I dont don't have to have it I Ive I've rot got enough without it But I I j lit it was mine I was a fool to sell sen Ill I'll buy it back If it you'll sell now 1 I Jim I Pretty Soon did not wish to sell For the first filst time in his life aside from finding the one small pocket below Coloma he was realizing his dreams reams of ot digging up wealth GoldIn Gold Goldin in pockets Each pocket richer than than the preceding one He visualized visualized visual visual- the ancient river feed ed leading him UP lP p into the foothills foothills' up to the ridge of or the mother lode where even evenI the most avaricious must weary of I digging up huge chunks of pure gold gold- He lie stood staring at t Phelps I Phelps had trouble with hIs Ills breathing I Ill buy it back if ir you'll sell now I he managed to repeat I Tobin reached down an and slapped a hand on P Phelps elps shoulder and said No place to make a bargain Git out out Talk l lk to me I say will do Im I'm his friend Hes He's easy to best in a bargain If It he wants to sell Im I'm going to see see he heI I gits a decent price Arid And a square I chance to clean up this claim if he heI I wants to hold it You talk with me Phelps hesitated then climbed I from the hole and went aside aice while stayed to to talk rapidly and earnestly to While waiting I Phelps twisted his hands hand and clawed at his throat and all but butI exploded because of the curses he I inwardly was hurling at hi his his- own stupidity Jim Jim you must sell sel and go home I or you'll never have a cent Im I'm repeating Old Misery's l talk Im I'm talking for him We agreed on that figger and added to it what you paid for tor the claim Now go ahead and name your price Dont Don't hear anything he says sas till he says yes Pretty Soon sad of countenance for a millionaire in the making beckoned for Phelps to Join him and wearily Informed My ly friend says I aint fit to stay out here He says this is my chance to g go go home and that a little Is as good for me as as a million f 1 Maybe Maybe May May- be hes he's right I God has blessed you in giving you rou such a friend fervently cried I Phelps Right Never was a a. word said Why Why Jim some someone one would Jump this claim or git you ou drunk and cheat you Inside of a week If I had my say I wouldn't sell for a million bitterly assured Pretty Soon Ha ha ho Youre You're a a. wild boy But ButI I I know how you feel As it is is' Jim I what'll you take I Well WeIl not to put too fine a a. point pointon on It I want my twenty-six twenty hundred hundred hundred hun hun- dred b back back back- ck- ck Done Its It's no moren right you should have It ft it back J JAnd And thirty thousand dollars to boot thirty Thir thousand spluttered spluttered spluttered Phelps Why Wh Vh you only paid twenty-six twenty hundred But Rut yOU von own on a rich ledge led that I didn't didt c cost st you anything You just located Anyway that's the figure figure figure fig fig- ure unless some of the men coming coming com corn ing log on the the- therun run are willing to fo pay more more But its it's ridiculous Ask your our friend there there there- his figure for second seconds seconds sec sec- sn snapped out Tobin I want this man on a stage bound for the bay then on a boat sailing for home With two thirty thousand sand In the office to meet him hint back hom homey and nd six hundred to travel on he can go back like a kind That's Thaes his jigger figger and he wont won't lower it And the minute is most up j The miners were quite close Isome I j some Bome carrying picks and shovels and all the rn madness i of a agold agold a agold gold stampede Ill Il dig a little more suggested suggest suggest- ed Pretty Soon jumping down yn into th the hole hoJe Maybe Ill I'll uncover such sucha a big nest nest nest- Drop that pick and nd climb cUmb out Youve You've sold it to me for thirty thirty- two thousand six hundred dollars These These- two men mel are witnesses to the bargain W V Well We'll li go back hack to town and Ill I'll deposit the price price to to your credit In the express office shouted shout shout- ed Phelps I Vell v Jim I low Jow a bargains bargain's a bargain He took you Ou at the price named our young friend here and he glanced at Gilbert is thinking its it's pretty works work's we didn't holdout t for fifty thousand thousand- None of or that thaU I bought at his figure Here Wilks Thomas Gardn Gardner r Stand guard over this cl claim im Ive I've bought It Now well we'll fix up up the other end of the business busi- busi ness i CHAPTER VIII The Whisperers With only a few hun hundred red dollars donars dollarson donarson on his person Pretty retty Soon Jim took the stage and commenced the epochal journey home Gilbert was I depressed Luck had favored th the vagabond His shiftless life had led him to pockets of or gold Then his sense of or fairplay int intervened and arraigned him before the brain cell which enthrones the judge men called conscience According to Old Misery the wandering prospector possessed the great virtue of being honest He I would not break his word once he gave gave it Joseph Gilbert well reared and thoroughly trusted had used money not his own The unhappy comparison made him so morose he told the mountain man he would take the mule and go on ahead ahead- avoiding Nevada City Old Misery read something of the Vermonters Vermonter's thoughts and kindly said It was my new medicine that I. I pulled Pretty Soon out of his mess and sent him back the biggest Injun I In the home tribe If It It Iti i want for smothering In them I places Id I'd like to go along just to hear the stories he hell he'll tell I mean to say younker my red me medicine is I aching to be at work I can feel it tugging to bust loose just like a ayoung ayoung ayoung young bufler pony in the fall hunt G Go along to camp and keep in mind how my medicine Is so sorter ter sizing you up and thinking how yau can cnn be helped Goodbye Try not to get drunk muttered Gilbert Old Misery was thoughtful for a a. abIt abit bit after his young friend had left him Then Tom Tobin came up an anticipatory gleam In his bold eyes and expressed himself by spitting on his his- hands and unfastening his I l buckskin shirt and starting to re remove remove remove re- re move it I You little runt exclaimed exclaimed ex exclaimed ex- ex claimed Old Misery admiringly You still have hae war dreams But our little can cap wait a bit longer I aint in Ia fettle just now That younker got under my old I hide but It was funny se seeing see seeing see see- ing him taking care of me thinkIng think think- Ing I was drunk That Is Js it was vas vasI as funn funny at at- first then It was funny I with tears in It I dont don't know as asIt asIt asit It was so 50 damned funny runny after atter all No Xo more than when a squaw goes up in the hills hUls to yowl for her dead buck Youre gitting old and soft sott growled Tobin Youre backing down You dont don't seem to sabe sab-e that that rumpus busted up before it was finished It can wait a bit and be all the better for waiting Tomm Tommy I II I soothed Misery l As I feel now a I II baker could slap my m face and ld I take tale it without a word No fun I fighting with a man who feels like I that You see the theo yoUnker o took I care of me Me Watched over me and arid put me to bed Why damn your iron hide I aint been took care I of since you dragged me shot full of holes from the Pache Pass Pass' |