| Show THE GOLDEN NUGGET A minces narrow escape from a Torri torribio blo pato pate at one of the hotels in this city is a man who has bas been hunter bunter trapper I 1 min miner crand cind what not always on the outskirts of civilization and lizas has no doubt pr s wl ali ll rough ough u more startling than almot almost any man in the eni lie still lives ili a quiet nook amon among r the mountains not many miles f from rom denver and li liw has w settled it with ili his own mind that lie ile will wander no moro inore his shyness and modesty m make ilac it difficult to win an of his stories filin him but it chanced thit that tho the other ovenin evening rao several of his old flenda who know knew h m back in virginia before lie he became a waud eier met him here and spent tho evening with him ile ho unbent to them and the reporter chancing to bo be preb pre bont caught this story among others oh yes ivo ive lived mostly to myself you know dick I 1 used to bo ba fond enough of company but I 1 been out on the border long before I 1 was more solitary than ever something happened the first year that fined mo of aji whatever loafing lon fing I 1 mi might t lit have had for companionship and if you dont mind ill tell you about it I 1 havo never told it to anybody else cne people who tell queer stories about their own experiences are arc rarely credited and this is a queer story I 1 was out among 0 the mines but all of us having haviar desperate bad luck it J just that everything was lead dead ti ainest the pan gang of us that went vent out o ut there right 0 where other men had taken out any quantity of pay dirt our men find enough week af after ter week to pay expenses one day a couple of shrewd Yant yankees ices came in there and prospected around a L little and offered to buy a couple of claims they wore snapped up too quick by two of our fellows who wei c glad of money to get bade back homo home with with but tile the strangers du dug down six six inches before they boman began el to turn out gold and ill give you my word vord they took two good sized fortunes out of those two holes meanwhile our bad hick went straight ahead the rich find of the two strangers had put the into better mirits t but it took thu the heart right out of me I 1 determined not to strike another lick there when the men caw that I 1 wab to further up into the mountains they traded me a pack mule for my claim and I 1 lo 10 loaded eded up wid and started off I 1 had gon tone about cabout three miles I 1 think when I 1 W 16 overtaken by jasper A alilis ills a young man an belonging 0 to the pang lie he had another paek pach mule and was war in every avery way as well laed as myself well wali deane ho he shouted cheerily when ho carna within hailing ts distance 1 I just concluded id go with you th that ate camps amps hoodooed hoodoo ed if ever n camp was seeing to mo me well have bettar luck up tho gulch 1 I still just at the first minute whether I 1 was glad or sorry I 1 never had been quite certain whether I 1 liked jasper or hated him but lie waa a good natured kind of a follow fellow and after a little I 1 decided that I 1 was glad lie lind come so we jogged bogged along 0 very socially until we readied reached a point away up anion among the ahei 0 the indications wore were promising and there wo we decided to make inake a I 1 trial it was at least fifty ariy miles anilo from the camp wo II 11 had ld lc bolt at I 1 should think and ta a wilder country no mortal over ever saw daiv I 1 believe with all my iny heart beart that we wore were the first white men that had ever seen keen that country wo we found a kind ot oi shelf on the mountain tide bide thou though gli and made a rude hut but of poles and leaves asin ansing I 1 our tent tor for a root roof and having fluis lied that we went to ork det detering erini bcd never to give up until we ve had explored all that countley count ly wall from tlc alc first lar t I 1 had good luck bucl I 1 never law thio thic 0 turn out better every eve ry lay day my iny littie nack of du dut dust t pot got fuller and counder and uram larango r c to say right rig 0 lit abile 1 war ivas having luch success aper was waa findig almost nothing lie ile seemed to worl work hard to too I 1 never cou d understand stand it ile ho bogan began to grow moody and silent phoui though ii lie ho need not hivo doncet done it I 1 told ibold him over and over gigin again that it wa cliare and share alike between us but lie he indignantly refused any part of my earnings one day I 1 was wa digging dicing t away at a side hill just aboc the little noi noisy y mountain torrent when I 1 uttered a acay cay of joy and fell on my knees digging digg ing the treasure out v with ith mv hands hand I 1 iliad had come upon a po pocket cIcet 1 there wore nvere thice g good sized nu nuggets 0 T ct be besides beider ider tho quantity of L uis it contained As I 1 held up the nur vt 13 jasper turned away scowling III biele cly wall what of icv ithe lie cried crice theres no need of cr crowing oving over it i is tho bitterness of hi hh manner mado me think that perhaps poverty was v eti really bealli pressing and with all my henrt heart I 1 urged urfred him to take half of what f I 1 found up to this time I 1 am satis satisfied fic 1 I that I 1 did it cheerfully and cord i 11 and lie he mut must have seen that I 1 nw moan nit wh aliat it I 1 staid lie ile seemed inel to grow row in better humor then and protected that ile he needed ne ded nothing and u not consent to a division divisio n lie expected to it lich bini himself self soine borne of these drys lie he said it was nas about three dai s after that I 1 made smother anotoli C r f and I 1 n I 1 it was V lg ono one that almost imo t frightened mo me v hen I 1 looked at it first it seemed so impossible so tin unreal real I 1 am satis satisfier fir d it ans the nugget that has ever beon found I 1 could not believe the ci dence of my own senses and idoo I 1 there holding it up tip and looking it at it 11 ir a dazed sort of way until jascor jasper earlell out but something 0 worth chilel 1 I was as pleased with iny byg good fortune but af tor all I 1 think of it and go ga crazy over it as some men would I 1 had never novar slept ic pt sounder in my iny life than I 1 did that iii r lit with my treasure under my head but at list last even in my sound sleep camo came in an uneasy y dream that sor something was crawling under m my y pillow and after awhile I 1 waked with a start to find some one bending over me arld and a liand hand under my p pillow telov stealthily feeling c for my hard bard won treasures with a ci cry y for jasper I 1 sprang apran 0 up and grappled with the robber with an oath lie pu pushed hod a pistol against my in y breast and fired I 1 by y the flash I 1 saw that it way jasper blin himself self and then all was vas darkness nc s and I 1 knew nothing ilow how long I 1 lay iny there unconscious I 1 never know knew when I 1 bolce wolco I 1 was lying u in a pool of blood that had flowed t till ill it could ilow no more and had coagulated und and finally dried I 1 was utterly unable to stir the filic aund was giving me agona and I 1 was suffering the most intolerably thirst I 1 saw sav nothing me but blit to lie there and die by for I 1 win burc that jasper had flea alc and I 1 was all alone in this solitude it was day daylight ligh broad day daylight light I 1 had boon been there twelve hours at least perhaps twenty four and now boys began V one of tho the most horrible experiences of my life I 1 have novar baon able abl e to look back on it without a shudder thero corne come aimeb to some soine of us you know when wo we grow old old in a little while that was one of the tims 1 I 1 was alving there half dead and d wishing I 1 could lie die the other half when I 1 heard aister a step I 1 thought at first perhaps it was jasper and I 1 felt lie he would finish killing I 1 mo ine and that would bo be a good thing then 1 I wondered ored idly if it were some of tile tho boys who had wandered from the camp below and then all tit at once I 1 became conge conscious that 1 it etwas was not a mans step at all but the step of sonic some an animal around and around the house it benl went enl whenever it passed tile the wall near which I 1 was lying it stopped and sniffed tit at the cracks everything was fo deathly still that I 1 could licar hear its heavy breathing and I 1 lay still while that horrible unseen creature went around and around the cabin but af after ter all I 1 have to wait so long it merely seemed long because there was such an ug ony of waiting the door of the cabin was made of benall roles poles riveted together tog ether wi with alth wooden pins it had bad been drawn shut alint but not fastened slowly it bean be an to move inove something wah wa pushing against ag it from the outside directly it ilg ive way vay and came open with a jerk and in tho the doorway appeared the bead and ghoul lors of a grizzly bear I 1 had made up my mind to die dic but not in that horrible f fashion a hion the ancic thought r of ital it almost m ost made me bloon but I 1 did riot not swoon I 1 lay iny there instead while the bear the largest one I 1 have ever xen slowly drew itself into the 06 cabin and walked about the floor sniffing ceic and there as it went and mounting upon it its 3 haunches to dra drag 0 down donn a 11 piece of meat f aiom i oin a shelf she if and quietly dc devour it it seemed an ne n age 0 e before it noticed me nn an rage age during which I 1 endured more tortu tortures ies than ever went into a 1 similar len lenth length t th of time before aut at last lat it turned and came tov ard rac and I 1 closed my c eyes VL 3 1 I can scarcely tell you about it my heart vitnest boatin beating ahon hen I 1 think of it that hu huo 0 muzzle nosing over ovel my fac face c and neck that hot breath on my check clico lc tho v hole I wonderous term fael aci ping on cr anc atrid 0 and nosing from the other hide and at last hist came vic the su moment ile iio grasped my iny arm and was jut st starting arting to drag mo mc to the door i when bicie nrose arose tile the sou soud dof of voices vo cc sa a little n ay y 0 off V F never in nil all my life had bad I 1 heard fuch s blessed sounds ids the i lie grizzl griz dropped his prey an and rushed out at the door doer twenty shots berc thed hied into ili hh body and lie fell in full sight of where I 1 lay the next moment they came pouring in the ios boys from the camp and they n were ere all about me and I 1 wats was crying like a baby and could not tay bay a word vord it all came out then jasrer jasper had grone fono down t to 0 the old evi armp rip with willi both tho the pack mules and had told thorn that the indications were fairly crded up oar way but that I 1 had bad anh taken cri the fever and died rud aud he be bear to F ruy ay NN henhe hen lie wont went on sayin that lie he off ol 01 for denver the boys packed up and started for our camp just in time if they had como come ten minutes later hater I 1 world nt be here today to day I 1 had hard hara work pulling through h a as it wn avas s jasrer jasper oli oh lie was killed by a lie he got cot to denver tile tho mexican and the with lim and no one I 1 knows aos cibere it is now nov denver ver col cor st louis globe damoc democrat rat |
