| Show TRAGEDY OP OF A MINEA MINE from the shoulder of baldy where when the mine was you could see tar far out to westward where the racine pacific rolled in ili i 1 blue sheet which was the undulating reflection of oc the heavens above it if you were on baldy you would say that thai there could be nothing more sublime in the world than the ocean and it if you were out at sea you would be firm lu in tile tho faith that no more magnificent thing could exist than the great gentl net nel mountain young bradshaw was just from college when his father sent him up to the mine as a sort of general manager mat iager to serve through the late summer and the coming winter the water supply ahon showed ved plain indications of early exhaustion haust ha lon and so the fitly fifty or more men who had been employed in bombarding the gravel with a sli six luch inch stream were called down to los angeles and paid up and discharged the exodus was general even yardley the most respected and most efficient deputy lit who had ever hired to a mine company in order that peace might lie be preserved in an official way went with will the others only young bradshaw and Burl burleigh elgh were left to tenant the cabins and watch the pipe it was eighty miles to los angeles in ili a horizontal line and nearly two wore more miles straight down toward the center of the earth the mountain was wild and majestic and inaccessible and when the men went away that meant solitary confinement in the build building lu of the pipe line hue tons of iron and steel had been dragged and maneuvered up tip a shoulder tor for many tortuous miles every pound representing human effort as even a 1 burro could not go into that labyrinth set on oil end As bradshaws Brad shaws father the president of the mining company ba bail bai I said bald in the beginning it took something that could swear and yell and get out of this the way quickly to get that piping in ill place burleigh Burl elgh was a man of 0 30 a giant u stature ii ith the magnificent health which dema demands ads association will healthy things ile he was nut not born to thu the mines as was pete who could spend das dabs in solitude speaking no word to any one pete was ordinarily the man who was left over gvinter when the snow piled and the cabin for six months was filled with the smoke which could not go up ind and which therefore was absorbed by his person making man him resemble in tile the spring 1 a I cured ham hall gut but this thile pete was taken to los AD angeles cies with the others and turned loose bur leigh it a man of reasonably intelligent parts was preferred by young brad shaw as a companion aulon for the latter thought an intelligent mid and well demean ored mine mate would be preferable to the stupid russian there could be some sort of intercourse between them it was july when the men had gone to los angeles and by the middle or oc september young bradshaw had finished strabo and I 1 had ti got well ou oil the way of translating him backward lie ile had by this time read every Dews newspaper paper which had before been pasted to the wall of the cook cabin ind and had one hy by one washed the journals oft off will warm water so its as to see what was printed on oil tile the other side lie ile had started a diary and had returned to it fifty times out I 1 to find that he could possibly record nothing more than monday both well cloudy below lie ile and Burl burleigh elgh hall had wandered up tip and down the bub pip line to the reservoir until the f abillar rocks had grown unbearable in their familiarity sometimes they turned on oil water and washed for a few hours houra anti and tried in this hydraulic search for gold to distract though thoughts its front from tile the frightful lonesomeness of close mountain and distant feea Burl olgh found the solitude harder to bear than the boy front from the college for the boy really found odd little things to take up tip sections at least of his big boyish mind ind but bur leleh a man ot of experiences could not noc do this lie ile grow grew morose and fretful and cooled cooked both had dyspepsia by bir the last of oe august toward the middle of september young bradshaw Brads liaw came in from a patrol of the pipe line arid and found that ilia t burleigh Hurl olgh bad cooked for ten instead of two the plates were set also for ten tell this for tori the boy cried with abounding delight are there tome some tour Is ta in camp burleigh Burl elgh looked ferociously about nol he snarled led who comes into this hell bell of loneliness no but I 1 an all I 1 going to have company I 1 have cooked ifor for harking and r frye rye and jaquith and ohalf halt a dozen of the best of the wen men who I 1 were here and it if they are not on oil hand to eat its no fault of mine I 1 shall I 1 imagine they are in the mint anyway and in that way perhaps I 1 can get corn tort fort here gordon addressing the OP apace itce which was fronted by the tin dish digit st at his left here have some bacon and ha sat W A drip dripping slice sited ol of meat apoll upon the plate and throughout tho the meal no lie talked as though the former workmen were present once more did the second blast catch yov you baker he inquired of the plate site young bradshaw 1 I thought orui ciui of those chunks had your loft left leg sure you want to find your hole a little soon adoni er or well have to hustle tor for bandages every day after that burleigh Burl elgh set those plates and fed those gh ghosts with serious attention bradshaw though a ali thoughtless 0 u gl i t 1 e as a and n d u unwitting linga g b boy oy saw by t this hl s t time 1 i i t c il that i tt t this b business es s 0 means e a n st something more than lie he hall had n at t fl arst r counted it w n aich was a joke once ile ho had railed at burleigh Burl elgh for apologizing to yardley for the burned condition ol 01 ot the bacon ind and burleigh had turned an n him with a look in hla his face which lie he al adli not relish and had asked him whitt what he meant by saying yardley was only it 11 three logged legged camp stool yardley said burleigh Burl Burle elgh was and Is the penal officer of this camp ilia iho man who maintained peace the justice the chief of police and everything which induced decency if be abne entitled to goud good bacon who Is it was the next nest morning that bradshaw was awakened by the sound of profanity although lie was asleep ho he knew it was profanity for kind of lurid lui id discourse could not bu be mistaken evett even when it came to you in ili dreams young bradshaw woke with w ith a start and found f burleigh standing ili over him with a knife the baud band that held it being poised to strike just then the october sunlight same out over baldy and into the slit above bradshaws Brad shaws bunk and burleigh Burl elgh drew back 1 I thought you were that thief ilori ton he 1 I shall kill him unless yardley acts quicker th than an ino ine yardley Is the only man who can keep keel that villains life in his body it if jim yardley comes to me and tells tella tile me la in the name or of ill the people of california that I 1 must deist des alst why jim yardley represents the law and all there Is to it and mumbling burleigh Burl elgh withdrew his giant form front from the c cabin 1 bin young bradshaw wont went to the door and looked out the cloud above told its story the early snow was coining there was no use attempting to got get out of the mine property in ili three hours every pass would be choked and no man having ventured out could hope to do more than die alle it was an insane giant a man cr crazed teed from loneliness behind and certain death in the snow before over by the place where tile the old bedrock was washed bare lie he could hear burleigh Burl elgh shouting tor for horton hoi ton to come out and fight before yardley hid had a chance to arrest them and spoil the tiling thing when you feel that one way or abe th other death Is at hand you either collapse or become a hero there Is no middle ground the decision has to be formed quickly young bradshaw aw one chance in a million of esca escaping pir ultimate destruction at the hands of the maniac it was certain that his hatred for borton could arid and would easily be switched in the six his months yet before them to a hatred or of Brads bradshaw Bradsha baw iV if in fact the lunatic would even continue to recognize him as bradshaw at all there was the danger suppose in the LQ absence of or anything representing him burleigh should conclude con cule 1 that the slight young collegian was N as tle the real thelrue the rue notion of his big vengeful dreams young bradshaw went over to tilo edge e of the wash and looking dabu awn into tile the cave called loudly bulleigh Buil Bull elgh you infernal fool ro oil you black hearted hound bound come up tip here al n you out front from behind an all enormous bowl ll Irl der leaped the lie insane miner r thit that horrible knife in his hand and the lira fire of fury in ill ills his eye chos that said that mall lie shrieked who Is it for by the lord lie to pray now straight as a pillar towered ton erad ill the spare e form of the boy at tile edge of tile the wash who you cursed blow blowhard liard who you red faced cur who why jim yardley who do you suppose it Is but jim yardley what do you von mean by roaring around hero here disturbing g every man lit in tile the mine it at his work cot como ri 13 here and give tue me that knife and then thell I 1 come alun to the court cabin where you belong you NN white hit e 11 livered V er C d jailbird jim yardley 3 youre oure tile the only man on oil earlla that dires talk that way to inc you know it too find and you rub it in say jim jill I with a 1 sudden change to lo the whimper of a beaten log dog 1 let we me out pretty soon bont out ill let you out when tile the snows go away it if you bellave behave yourself see I 1 its beginning to fall aill now 11 byc yos and im good for six inc months luths of 0 it when young bradshaws Brad shaws rattler father and ami the vice president tat of tile tho mine with 11 party reached tile shoulder sli of bably lit il tile the eat baily ill apt april R of the next spring trev ahry battled through drifts to find a slight youth with will white hair waiting wait walt ilig waiting oer in tin till court cabin with its great broat iron bars and its massive massive door stal stalk klug luff up aud and down before tile out oue window was a giant with living fere in liis his eyes who continually yelled Yard leyl wardlo I 1 oil oh jim please aint time pretty near up tip in atter after waid telling of oc ll 11 tile horror ot of that winter young bradshaw Hrad shaw used to say that in fumul when lie he wanted to live in a lonely place lie would leave all healthy and Int intelligent ellige n t men behind and associate himself solely with some such obtuse and unimaginative clod as hooky rote pote chicago Cli leago record |
