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Show Superstition Mountain ' ft lea ram Fiction, by Owtn Arnold ' CAST OF CHARACTERS Carolee Colter, heroine, prospector's prospec-tor's daughter. Stuart Blake, eastern "dude" tourist; tour-ist; Carolee's lover. Henry Colter, prospector. Paul and Silas Colter, prospector's prospec-tor's sons. Nina Blaks, Stuart's sister. Yesterday: ' The mystery of Superstition Su-perstition is cleared up and the wounded Indian says he will tell Carole th location of the lost gold mine. CHAPTER XVin Never was mor drama packed Into a few hours, thought Stuart Blake, than in those in which the aged Indian ebbed to his snd in th Colter cabin. He did not die Immediately; Indeed, In-deed, he lingered nearly a whole day. But he had furnishsd ths ksy to many long unanswsred questions, ques-tions, the solution to most of Superstition's Su-perstition's mysteries. Gratitude to Carolee. who had befriended him and his kind, undoubtedly caused him to talk so freely. The old medicine man sent for his squaw and Instructed her to be Carolee's guide with Jh boy Interpreter to th hidden mine. Th squsw knew ths location of the aacred gold. . "You can't go up there with only an Indian boy and woman!" Stuart growled. "It may be a trick. They might de anything to you, Carolee!" "I ' don't think ao. I am not afraid. You go home, Stuart, and Sheriff Watson will bring Dad and Silas close behind me. Th Indian may hav nothing, really, but it won't hurt to see. I will let you know promptly. It was you who had to shoot th old man, remember. remem-ber. The squaw would never let you go." The six riders departed well before be-fore sunrise on the morning after Stuart had wounded and captured the fanatical old medicine man. Carole, th squaw and th inter- "You mean the mine is under here?" Carole waa incredulousr "Yes. She say to dig. I will dig." Th youth moved many heavy stones. He loosened soil with th miner's pick hs had brought It was slow business, and ths women helped him. One Carole looked back, saw th men and signaled them to wait Waist deep in th hoi they cam onto wood. It was hard wood, extremely ex-tremely hard, and Carole knew it waa th desert ironwood that grow In Superstition. She recalled the Dutchman's story, decades bo-fore, bo-fore, that he had covered his mine shaft with Just such logs. They would endure for centuries In so dry a region. Ironwood grows but IS or 10 feet tall, crooked and gnarled; and its trunks are never very thick. The longest over this min shaft was about eight feet. But It was extremely ex-tremely heavy, snd an hour or so elapaed before Carole was In the open tunnel of ths mine.' . Ths tunnsl was not very deep 30 feet or so. sloping gently into th bulk of th mountain. Carolee waa ao excited ah couldn't help trembling. 8he picked up rocks and at once saw flecks of gold. Carolee Finds The Gold Quart pieces, egg-siied. seemed high-lighted with th yellow metaL Near th end of th shaft h found th richest looking nugget of ell-One ell-One piece, like a pecan, seemed to be pure metal The whit girl stared at them for a long time, fingering fin-gering them. Then she began softly soft-ly to cry. "Oh, Cod," she whispered, "Help it not to make any difference. dif-ference. Help us to us it the right way." Th two Indian remained in th brighter sunlight outside, sitting with incredible lack of interest waiting wait-ing for her te com out Carolee appeared soon, flushed with excite- 1 Silas and Carolee wer doing all manner of silly things, like th chll- ' dren thy were. "Good Lord!" exclaimed ex-claimed Sheriff Watson, "the atate'll never hear the last of this!" Or. It Taken Home When they got home finally, bags laden with ore, they bad calmt-d enough to watch ths excitement of Mrs. Colter, to rest and to at a bit, for it was then well past noon. Carolee, though, had no Interest in eating; Without offering an explanation, ex-planation, ah took a whit aheet from her room and hung It securely se-curely to a shrub on the edge of the cliff behind ths Colter cabin. "Funny time to hang out washin'," ramarked the sheriff, gaily. Carolee smiled. "You wouldn't understand," un-derstand," shs said. She mounted Chieftain again, but paused before she rode away. "I will meet all of you at ths lodge for dinner," she told them. "Do not com with m now." Sh saw Silas grinning and knew that he would obey, knew that he didn't car. Sh was alone when she stopped at the appointed, spot down trail, their trysting place. Sh was holding hold-ing a few of th best nuggets, but sh wasn't thinking of them now. Strang calm had suffused her. Th afternoon waa waning. Evening color wer creeping Into th ellffs. Velvety shadows wsrs emerging from their midday lairs. Far off to th northward shs saw peaks tipped with sunset glow iridescent ir-idescent western gold, elusive, vagrant va-grant but celestial. Sh aat very quietly. Never had the landscape been so magnificent ao exalting. Her hair waved with th brers, and her lip trembled ever so little. Down th trail, then, sh saw Stuart coming. THE END (Copyright 1937. for Th Telegram) prtr wr ahead, usually juat out of sight of ths sheriff and the Colter men. This separation aeemed te satisfy satis-fy the aquaw. She would live up to th letter of her Instructions, at any rate. That was all that mattered. Carolee wondered, throughout the three-hour ride, if this wer all aom sort of foolishness. foolish-ness. If sh were being tricked after all. or If their entire western adventure ad-venture really was reaching It climax cli-max at last Squaw Leads Them Thr was no trick. Th squaw led them sure enough near Weaver's Needle. Through interminable canyons, sh rod up and down and around, ao rough was th terrain, but she knew her way. Then at last sh climbed up a particularly par-ticularly steep slope up where they could sec th smelter smoke at th town of Superior 40 mil away and Squaw prak In another vague distance dis-tance and stopped with them on a rocky flat no larger than a horse corral. Sh pointed to th base of a boulder about head high, and aaidl a word or two. . "It ia there," th Interpreter reported, re-ported, simply. ment. Th squaw promptly ssld something, some-thing, staring atraight ahead. "I have ahown it to the white woman." translated th Indian boy, and at once th two of them arc and started away. They never turned, nor even looked back; and Indeed Carole never saw either of them again. Sh waved then to Sheriff Watson Wat-son and her father and brother, whose curiosity and interest sent them forward with great haste. Excitement Ex-citement knew no bound for th next quarter hour. "People hav hunted for this for I reckon SO years," orated th sheriff, sher-iff, at last "Now It's yours. This will run I don't know bow many thousand dollars to th ton. Why, some of It's pur gold. Look at thea here peas pur yellow! And thia piece I And th's'n!" Ths sheriff was abnormal and nobody blamed him. "Let's put up your monuments." he ordered, "and tak what we can of thie back home You foika don't earn to realize it. but I tell you you're millionairea!" Shear emotion overcame stoical old - man Colter then, and he sat down oa a rock to cry out loud. |
