Down the Mother Lode

s to th

ands on t

ps for

listen a

at forty-foot grav

ay, an

t Ha

rivers, all that is left of hills torn down at the point of the powerful hydraulic nozzles, with great hea

the mound got the proper height the sluice was simply lengthened, like putting another joint onto a caterpillar-and there you were! The sluice-

lls are pierced with drift tunnels and abandoned mines. Some of the prospect

e hole, tie a rope, usually my pony's lariat, to the tree and slide down it to explore the depths below. If we came to a side drift we would swing into it, light our

were sure, the snakes were not rattlers; baby bats, which invariably tried to bite us; swallows

a sunlit opening on the hillside, more often we reached a blind end and were forced to return to the main

wing fiercely as soon as he caught sight of us, "Whassa malla you? Alle time you come see Ali Quong! Ketchem

nning it for him in the heavy iron pan, fascinated to see what we should find. Usually only a few small nuggets in a group of colors (flake gold), but once we found a good sized nugget which Quong gallantly gave me

the regard the pioneer families had for these faithful Chinese servitors who took as much loving pride in the aristocratic and unblemished names of their "familees" a

re again," said Jim "Hutch" (H

sunny, velvet air to a world which had been painted clean, new

alize that it was sprin

cArthur-r-r?" Hutchinson came

else could a man be after doin'? Me boots were on, an' I coul

ned Jim Hutch, sternly. Now Greeley had a fear of what the dour old Sc

he growled. "'Twas why I was w

at day, whatever? At

eautiful spring, I mind," he countere

afternoon an' Charlie Price an' his Leezie were out in hi

-to in his corral to inform Lizzie, the mare, of his intention. Lizzie was always the unwilling partner of these agricultur

e flattened her ears, opened her mouth like a yawning snake, and ran at him. Old Charlie let out a whoop that brought the sheriff

a saddler and a pair of tugs and a collar bored her. With a cinch one could puff out in true wild-horse fashion while the latigo strap was being pulled, and

, bringing her hoof down on the old Dutchman's foot. His blood-curdling whoops

tter? Are you

ether to kick at Lizzie with it, knowing full well that he stood a good chance of her kicki

e asked, in a bland, so

y, I've come to

t got so much time today. It's vegetables I

can call in vain if anything happens

ttle excitement I got to

ity or he would have known that the plowing of Charlie Price and Lizzie was a regular event of each season, for whi

progressed i

e ground. Charlie reefed the reins at once, completely turning off the power. Then he put the reins about his neck, grasped the handles of the plow with both hands, a

ngs! You-you think dot plowing is not high

sly to the end of the field with the plow banging in scoops and leaps, and old Charlie, dangling on the end of the reins, flying along in seven-league jum

admonitions, delivered in a voice of thunder, from a different language. It was all the same to Lizzie! She loathed

ttlesnake at sundown and joined the laughter-we

hmitt." Old Jimmie merely growled in his beard. "Charlie, mon," he called,

ery late when he started back to his cabin, carrying in one limp, hot han

ie Greeley was raking in a jackpot, grinning fiendishly at the dour Jim Hutch when they heard

iff? Charlie Pric

ha

I know well the sailor coat that he wears-and

the edge of town." The boy ran off. Old

ent ye gold when ye had none? Yea, the gold ye thought it not worth ye'r while to return. Who was ever ready to

her the rice and beans he went without? Who was it that the Widow Schmitt wai

much for ol

When ye want a woman, run away f

na do it,

me coat, she couldn't see me suspenders to tell was I c

go unworked? Who nursed ye when ye were lyin' seeck unto death, an' no

w, but not before one uncontrollable

s lost, last summer; that followed the Indians for thirty miles on his Leezi

songs from ower seven seas, which we did blush to hear, in a voice to be hear

wi' the roars of a bull-bison forcin' them to hear that the squaw was crazed from the death of her own bit bairn, and but t

lie P

It whirled the heavy smoke plumes into forms of vanished ghosts, like the tortured figments of e

riff wa

oad hat off, running his fingers nervously through his hair. "

re was a tale of the lad who cried 'wolf.' Many there are h

hey reached the tree wi

Tis not Charlie at all! 'Tis but an effigy dressed in

m frae some mutton-

oss the road to Charlie

'Help'," said th

d him," added

road. They started

hammer's Shaft." He must be careful to avoid it. Suddenly his foot slipped on a pebble. He clutched unavaili

scent into the next world for the time being. He even, swung one leg over a wiry limb, and there he c

bterranean deeps. People had fallen in and drowned, and had been known never to rise again. The ghost of a Chinaman who had been mur

n the Indian who had sold him a salted mine; that he had not made Lizzie plow; that, abo

wished that he had drunk that which the jug contained. It was growing daylight. What was the day, the

a crowd of men came running over the hill, his arm

lder to glance into the deathtrap below and-just as his repentant rescuers reac

osenhammer shaft and had fallen into the s

Charlie married

esnake