IN THE JAWS OF DEATH.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2360, 3 May 1901, Page 3

IN THE JAWS OF DEATH.

SmDI IT TIE STAKE. ■• A COMPLETE STORT. { \7"ES, sir. I've seed mighty queer Y times, and run acrost a heap ■*• of queer characters in this 'ere land. There'll never be nothing like it again, if you and me were to live fifty thousand years afore we scratched a grey beard.' There was a tone of sadness in Dan Nobblet's voice as he spoke, with his hand half-concealing a series of scars made in his cheek years ago, 'in a hand-ter-hand fight with a grizzly, and the bar got the worst of it.' I was paying a visit to the States, and Dan was my guide, and while our horses were feeding on a green slope near by, we sat smoking and looking down at the ruins of a mining town in a little valley in the Sierra Nevada, through which ran a small tributary of Kern River.

Dan was a natural-born guide and hunter; and he had a hunter's contempt for mining, and civilisation generally. He was a medium-sized man of about forty, but so scarred and weather-beaten, so low-voiced and usually reticent, that one might easily believe that he had grown up gradually, like the mighty gnarled oak trees on the mountains where so long had been his home.

Seeing that he was in the humour to speak, I determined to encourage him, and let his conversation take any turn it desired.

' And so you say, Dan, that was a

prosperous mining camp at one time V I said, pointing my pipe at the brown heaps and charred-li Hiking mounds in the valley, which told that man had been there disturbing Nature and spoiling her features with his picks and spades*

' Prosperous, kernal V Dan always promoted an officer two grades. ' You may safely bet your foundation dollar that Eden City, as that spot was once called, was a mighty live place, though one wouldn't think it now, when the rain and the wind has nigh beat out all the signs, and the grass and the wildflowers is a-growin' whar once was hearths. Look down, kernal ! Can you see any signs of life thar ?' ' Not a vestige of animal life,' I replied, as I looked over the valley and up the serrated peaks that wore snowcaps, and in the direction of Tehatchepa Pass, through which we had crossed the day before from the great Mojave 1 >esert.

' Narv a vestige of animal life, kernal, 'cept it may be now and then a bird a flvin over ; and it do seem to me, as I look down, that the birds fly kinder quicker over whar Eden City wanst was. I've seed the slopes down thar oovered with bosses and mules, not to speak of other critters. I've seed six hundred mena-workin' in that valley by day, and a-sturbin' the peace of tlie "place by night. That's the healthiest spot in the mountains, kernal. Thar was never a man died thar of sickness, yet nigh forty young, strong fellers is buried alwut that old oak tree.'

Dan pointed to a tree, whose blackened trunk showed the lightning's track, and whose white, bark less limbs weii- stretched over the graves, like skeleton arms.

•Murdered, Dan?' I asked.

' Wa all, p'raps that'd cover it ; but as a rule the lit' passed, mavbe, and the fellers under that tree didn't get the drop—they was slow a-drawin'. Thai's one grave down tliar, whar two brothers as killed each other in a drunken spree Is sleepin' side by side, wrapped in the same blanket, like when they was boys. Down the

stream, close to whar you sec that red rock risin' uj»

I ' Yes -' ' Thai's whar Professor Elkins, the as-wyer, lived with his daughter, which daughter was jist about a leetle bit the nuttiest critter as ever set foot in that valley, or any other, I might say, in the Hush days of Eden City, which last"d jist nine months and ten days. J made a right smart sum of money, ! bringin' game in from the mountains. 1 seed a good deal of that gal, Lucy Klkins, and,of the young feller, Oscar King, as was in love with her, as , everyone knowed. I remember seein' 1 the vigilantes a-takin' young King i under that tret 1 ; the rope hung from I that big white limb, as seems to be I p'intin' down the valley.' Dan sud- | denlv stopped to push the tobacco into ' his pipe, and then resumed his smok- | ing, having evidently dropped the ! thread of what promised to be a very j interesting narrative. ' We'll be ready ! to start purtv soon, kernal : and it'll ! keep us on the jump to reach camp ; down in Tulare Valley afore dark,' j continued Dan, as he glanced from the. horses to the sun, sloping westward from the zenith.

1 l)an Nobblet, you have excited my curiositv past endurance, and if you do not tell me all about Lucy Elkins and Oscar King, with everything of interest connected with the valley, T stir not from here without a struggle.' Dan laughed at my mock earnestness; then, throwing k'ick his long hair, he said :

' Waal; it's worth hearin', kernal. I've showed you whar the professor and his purty daughter lived. There was another woman in Eden City when it was a flush place. She was a purty loud-lookin' piece of goods, and lived up the valley, away from the other buildin's. She was married to a gay feller, as was very handy with his pistol, named Clarence Lavelle ; her name was Clorinder, so you may judge, kernal, they was a bit stuck-up and airish. Lavelle claimed to l>e an artist, and uster go off for days asketchin' in the mountains. He never turned a hand at hard graft, yet him and his wife had lots of dust, and lived a leetle letter than anyone else. They was lx>th decent, free-hearted sorts of folks, very pop'lar with all the boys ; and they often had a quiet leetle game up at their ranch, with the best liquor in the place gratis. 'Now, a cur'us thing was that a numlKT of men had Wn killed, one at a time, on the way to Los Angeles, and that it was done by white men was evident; for the bodies was stripped of nothin' but the gold dust and any jewelry as might be of use to the murderers. ' One of these men was killed 'bout six mile below the camp, and in a way that showed beyond any guessin' that the murderer and robber lived in Eden City. A vigilance committee was formed, and they held a secret meetin' in an out-of-the-way spot. It was agreed to watch every man as come or left camp, and to report till the evidence got 'lxmt strong enough, and then to string the feller up.

' T might say, kernal, that the evidence didn't need to be powerful strung in them days to have a human critter's life took. Young King was a quiet, good-lookin' chap. He knew all bout the rocks, and how the ore gwt in 'em, and was alius a-huntin' insects and butterflies, and examinin' flowers. He wasn't very pop'lar ; and often the boys u.ster say they wondered what the professor's purty daughter could see in him to like. He was away a good deal, which wasn't so cur'us, but he never got in with the fellers, and was offish, as if he wanted to keep himself secret. Clarence Lavelle—or doctor as he was called and his wife acknowledged they'd both tried veiy hard to lie you Ikg King, but thar was somethin' 'bout him as went ag'inst the grain. Both

allowed he'd tear a power of watchin', and that the vigilantes might do well to see whar he went now and then.

'Waal, things went on in this way for 'bout a month, and without much reason young Oscar King kept asinkin' lower and lower in the opinions of all, and it was generally felt it'd take less evidence to hang him than any other feller in Eden City. The doctor and his wife tried to keep the boys from gettin' tin) much down on the young feller;.but they had a way of doin' it that somehow worked quite the contrary like. 'One day thar was a mail expected, by way of Vidalia, but it didn't come, nor the next day, nor the next; so some of the Iwys went out to s'arch, and 'bout as was expected they found the mail-carrier dead, his pockets turned inside out, and his mail gone. 'Thar was excitement after that, sure enough ; and the excitement got to the boilin' pint when Oscar King's ranch was searched (he was away at the time), and Doctor Lavelle, who was at the head of the crowd, fished up from under the floor the bloodcovered mail bag and a lot of old silver watuhes and bogus diamonds as had been worn by the men killed before this.

' The vigilantes went down to Professor Elkins, showed him the proof, and wanted to know whar young King was. The professor turned white, and stammered lie didn't know ; and the gal Lucy got white, and said Oscar was in the mountains—that lie would be home next day, and that some foe had placed the things in his house. Doctor Lavelle shook his head in sorrow for the young innocent woman, and left.

4 Parties started out to find Oscar King, but it seems Lucy got ahead of them. She travelled allnight through the mountains, a-shoutin' his name, and found him next mornin'. She told him the whole story, said she believed him innereent, and wanted him to get away, if he didn't want to 1m- killed. Whatever else was thought of young King, it was allowed on all

hands that he had plenty of sand in his ciaw, and bout as much narve as the next man. He denied the whole thing, and went to Eden City with Lucy.

'that's no use. a-spinnin' out the story. The viligantes took him at once, and the trial came in quickorder. The evidence was ag'inst him. He couldn't get out of it, though Doctor Lavelle did try to make a speech in his favour. I come in just as they were a-takin' King down 10 the tree, as I've spoke of. He was calm, but bold in denial. They'd a swung him up in two minutes, if I hadn't stepped up, with a pistol in each hand, and swore I'd shoot the man as held the rope if he didn't drop it. He did drop it, like a hot spud. I heerd the story, and I showed of my own knowledge that Oscar King was with me when the mail-carrier was killed ; that he hadn't been to Eden City since then, And that some foe, the real murderer, was then in their midst, and had done this to shield himself.

'' Who do you suspect V asked the

boys. ' I turned, and pointin' to Lavelle, said :

' I suspect him ! S'arch his house, and if you don't find that he has the gold and property of every man robl>ed since Eden started, I'll let you hang me with King.'

' You see it was a purty bold guess. ' Wa-al, U> make a long story' short, Lavelle turned white first, then lie drawed a pistol, as if to shoot; hut I had the drop on him. Then he made a break for his house, and swore no s'arch should be made. That confirmed the suspicion, so the boys went down and told him to come out. He answered with a shot; then the boys was sartin. They held back till that night, when they called for the woman to come out. She'd got out afore this, and when she was called she came over and made a clean breast of it. The doctor kep' a-shootin' till the house was in flames, and • lie could be seed inside plain enough for rifles. ' Wa-al, that's 'bout all. A few months after, Eden pegged out, and Oscar King went to 'Frisco with the professor and his daughter. The young folks is married^long since. ' "What 'bout Mrs. Lavelle, you say ? Waal, kernal, afore we mount, T might as well tell you, for she was an extraonry woman. She didn't take on as if her whole life was a-goin' to l>e darkened by the loss of her pard. She waited till the ranch had burned out, and everything 'bout it was cool; then she borrowed a miner's pan, and went over till she found whar the doctor's ashes was.'

' His ashes, Dan ? What did she want with them ? I asked.

' She knowed he had a pile of dust 'bout him when he kicked the bucket, so she got the ashes in a snug heap and panned 'em out; and they do say she made right smart by it. She left soon aiter, and that's let me out. One wouldn't think anything like what I've said had ever took place in that quiet valley,' said Dan, waved his hand at the blasted oak tree, and threw himself into the saddle.

The End.