"The Tenderfoot."

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13874, 10 April 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

"The Tenderfoot."

We never knew exactly -where the ■mysterious mine was located, but to judge from the actions of the Tenderfoot, as we always called him, it was one of the richest bonanzes in Custer County, and that was saying a good deal, for Ouster County at that time was undoubtedly the greatest mining section of Ihaho. The Tenderfoot first appeared in Chal'.is in the fall of 189—, announced quietly that he hailed from Michigan, declared his intentions of staking out ■a second Comstock and otherwise put the old-time prospectors on nettles by making them believe he was a miner of the old scientific principles of " ideal mineralogy," as it was expounded in the expansive curriculum of the Michigan College of Advanced Mineralogy. H$ was quiet, inoffensive, and exasperatingly polite —especially to the gentler B e X _bvit when he spoke it seemed to ms that his words carried with them an ambiguous meaning and a denth of conviction that would have made the " average mine promoter look like a plugged nickel in the wrong slot. His "sesquipedalia verba" and Michigan manners were calculated to knock the com-mon-school graduates of Challis into the back-yard of obscurity; and even Tarantula Tom forgot his six-shooter and stood with his mouth open, wlien .the Tenderfoot began to explain the scientific side of mineralogy. The stranger always carried with him a slender walking-stick—an.-'article of metropolitan fashion that jyeatly' offended Tarantula Tom mid his partner," Six-shooter' Sam,/wh6 frequently found it difficult to re-strain themselves in their mutual desire to take a shot at the innocent walking-stick. During the frequent visits to the mining camp, -lie invariably wore a pair of rimmed.-nose-glasses, which, considered with his walking-stick, gave him anything but the appearance of a practical miner; but we believed from our observation that he had discovered one of tlie rarest ledges in the Northwest. -Sixshooter Sam and Tarantula Tom Vrere among;.'the first gentlemen who endeavoured, by every civilised method, to ascertain "the whereabouts of the Tenderfoot's discovery; but these two Tedoubtable warriors, as well as the rest of us, were unable to elicit any definite information, although the stranger conversed freely on the probable assays of his ore, gave us a rough estimate of the "billions of tons" M free-milling rock in sight, described the "hanging-wall," and went into numerous details concerning the dips, angles, etc., incidentally using the most technical terms in his description of the 3edge, which he confidently declared, was between three thousand and ten thousand feet wide and a mile long. The float, he said", which had been picked up indiscriminately, would go to something like a thousand dollars to the ton, free milling, besides which metal he believed it carried an amount of native silver, iron, and copper sut- , ficient to cover the costs of shipment and milling. This caused Tarantula Tom to squint both eyes and look tor a billiard-table to lean upon, but Sixshooter Sam ordered the drinks and declared that such "dad-blasted good luck sought to be a criminal offence agin sassiety." The Tenderfoot ignored this polite declaration, and continued, quietly, to say that he had. opened up several parallel veins which he thought contained a finer base ore than ; the rock of the main ledge, for upon roasting and pulverising a pan of it he had obtained results to the probable ■ value of ten dollars. So, as we listen- • ed to the Tenderfoot, we became convinced -that-he ivas indeed a college-' hook miner," and desperately endeavour- j ed to see,-a few samples of his ore. But the Tep.derfoot cunningly informed us * that Iks never carried samples with him, because the ore was all so rich that .■* son»e one might attempt to rob him for l tHa gold in it. '■_.-'' . Now all of these things pointed to a » fabulously rich claim, and of course we were anxious to scent out the trad and I stake all the adjoining properties; but * the Tenderfoot expressed a desire to « hring out his friends and relatives in > the. east in order that they might get in on the ground floor, and locate the °. next "best ground. This naturally irri- * tated the" delicate sensibilities of our s friend Tarantula, and almost caused Sixshooter Sam to give a little 44-ven-tilation to the Tenderfoot's anatomy; * but at the request of One-Eyed Pete, * who, meekly hinted that such a breach J of etiquette would mean the complete l loss of the mysterious mine, it was v deemed advisable to dispense with the r longed-for funeral. So Tom and Sam c quieted the troubled waters of their s temper, and waited hopefully for the Ter.derfoot to betray his secret. s The Tenderfoot had been in • camp > about a month when he informed us of a his discovery. Three months later we were no nearer a solution of the mys- » tery than we had been the first day, * and every one was asking, ".Where is * the rich bonanza discovered by the c Tenderfoot?" No one was yet able to t solve the problem. For the first time a in his life, Tarantula Tom opened up * his sack and "set 'em up" freely to k the camp —hoping that a few good - drinks of the Kentucky embalming j fluid would loosen the Tenderfoots I tongue. But the Tenderfoot only drank i down the drinks with an alarming evi- i dence of unconquerable sobriety, re- i turned the treats, and remained invin- a cibly taciturn. Nothing could, unlock the coveted secret in his breast, and so t the attempt was finally abandoned by c all but Tarantula Tom and Sixshooter i Sam. The former, on several occasions < endeavoured to shadow the Tenderfoot J to his claim, bat the Tenderfoot was; i not to be taken off his guard for after ] leading poor Tarantula over the moun- I tains, through a half-dozen forests, and down a labyrinth of canons, he invari- ( ablv disappeared as completely _as i though swallowed by the earth. On < these occasions Tom returned to the i camp looking like a lost sheep m a 3 blizzard—his teeth on edge, his head i on his breast, and his rusty six-shooter 1 ready for the first target that present- ; ed itself. It looked as though he j would never find out the location of the : big bonanza until the Tenderfoot had filed his location notice, and by that « time his relatives from the east would probably have monopolised the adjoining: territory. \bout once a week the Tenderfoot re- , turned to camp for a sack of provisions, and usually brought with him on his shoulder:* sack of precious ore wb.ch he stored in a private vault at the Miners and Merchants' Savings Bank. Then, when he had purchased his flour, matches, and bacon, he disappeared up tho cannn in the forests. _ Biittlm actions of the Tenderfoot Warn.- a - aJ -i"ted with Bessie Holzel, Vr-' enter into a passionate courilu,in spite of the fact that Tarantula Tom, Sixshooter•Sam,. .Threefingered Joe, and other eligible miners of the camp had endeavoured for several months to stake out her heart. She had hitherto seemed unapproachable and had refused to " be located ; vet the way that the oily young Tenderfoot insinuated himself into her good graces, and " jumped the claim, was sometliing that could not be righted except by a hanging-bee, or an up-to-dtae funeral. . . Had it been left to the decision of Tarantula Tom it is probable that the Tenderfoot would have been buried a littlo at a time on tho instalment

plan but it was difficult to arouse public prejudice to the necessary pitch, for everyone was living in the fond belief that if the Tenderfoot was allowed to live he would reveal the whereabouts of his bonanza, and thus create a boom for the dying camp. On the other hand, if Judge Lynch was allowed to prevail the secret would never be known; and, anyway, it was whispered that Bessie Holzel was really in love with a desperado by the name of Jack Billings, and that she was merely deceiving the Tenderfoot in order to get into possession of his prospective wealth. So the funeral Tom was anxious to bring about was indefinitely postponed, and the- stranger went unmolested. Outside of the ridiculous phase of the affair, there were many good points in favour of the Tenderfoot. He was a hopeful hard-working, energetic chap, whose soul seemed to be wrapped up in the mysterious bonanza. By this time we had begun to suspect that he was not a first-class practical miner, but his evident good fortune in discovering the rich lode made him an enviable creature in the eyes of the old-time prospectors, and, after all, we admired him for his' ability to keep the secret, while in a measure,' we pitied him, for as soon as he became acquainted with Bessie Holzel we saw that his mine was -birt a secondary consideration. His heart went out to her at their first meeting, and subsequently his time was mostly given to the girl with the hazel eyes the niece of the disreputable saloon-keeper known- as " Reddy Black" —an exconvict, past grand highwayman, and retired murderer. Of course, no one held the faults of the uncle against Bessie, but it was known that she was far from the good pure 'woman she pretended to be. Her life in the east had been such that she was compelled to come west for concealment, and her footsteps in Challis had closely followed' ; in the wake of "Ready Black," who defended her in every intrigue, and shared with her the profits of her infamy. She was pretty almost beautiful — but she was likewise cunning, treacherous, and deceitful a woman who would, stoop to any depth to obtain her ends, and for whom more than one fool and his money had magically parted. Her acting in the presence of' the Tenderffoot would have done credit to a Bernhardt, for she realised that the boys in camp were too much in fear of her uncle to divulge her character, and a word to her discredit would have meant a mysterious death to the man who uttered it. . So the Tenderfoot was kept in surprising ignorance of her true nature. To him she wais all virtue, kindness, modesty everything that goes to constitute a good and true woman. She carefully avoided even the. use of such cosmetics as she feared would betray her character, and instead of rouge, she indulged freely 'in Old Bourbon —to an extent that kept up the hectic flush of her cheeks, and concealed their sallowness. Her gaudy raiment became exceptionally refined; lier conversation guarded, her actions reserved. The way that Tenderfoot grew to .idolise her would have made Konieo ashamed cf his incompetency, for certainuly no lover in fiction was ever more ardent or more thoroughly subservient. But one evening the affair came. to an unexpected close. Bessie, by artful pleadings and coquettish inducements, ' persuaded the Tenderfoot to. let her have a sack of his treasured ore from the vaults of the Savings Bank. He brought it on the following day to her home, and there she I opened it eagerly, and took from it a sample of the mysterious contents. For a moment she gazed at -it blankly, then looked searchingly at the face of the Tenderfoot. -..-I'ihaUyy its ..the--truth impressed itself upon her, she burst out laughing, and laughed hysterically for several minutes.' ■ Jack Billings was in the room at the time, and he said that never in his life had he heard such a. terrible, bantering, scornful laugh. The whole camp muse have heard it. The Tenderfoot was kneeling beside Jier when thai laugh pierced through his brain like tne mocking banter of a devil. He never knew how long he had knelt there, listening to her laugh, but when he arose to his feet it seemed that he was an old, old man, who had just awakened from a Rip Van Winkle slumber. Bessie, after all, was more of a miner tfian the Tenderfoot. ■ Finally, when Jack and Bessie had left the room, the Tenderfoot took up his sack and staggered from the house. The night was dark, and the air bracing. It seemed to inspire him with a new lease of life, for lie hurried to the Owl Eye saloon and proceeded to order the drinks, for all present. ! "Bessie Holzel has gone insane, he said, calmly. " Slie is mad stark mad. I left her but a few minutes ago —raving." "Reddy Black," the greatly-to-be-avoided uncle of the woman in question, bad just returned from Bessie's home, and was standing at the end of the bar when the Tenderfoot en. tered. But he only smiled oddly, and drank to the stranger's health. For some reason he did'.not draw his gun, or even offer an answer to the Tenderfoot. Only when the latter liad passed out of the saloon, carrying his sack of ore, did " Reddy Black" tell us the story ; of the mysterious mine. But we did not believe him, until it was finally proved to us by subsequent developments. it was a week later that I happened to be with a searching party which discovered the Tenderfoot's mine and with it the Tenderfoot. It was up on an almost perpendicular mountain, several miles from Chaliis, and in a mineral belt that had been greatly prospected, but which was known to be worthless. The mysterious mine was a hole in (the ground —a hole cutting through a great wide ledge ot cranite—with streaks of argentiferous galena. The main edge contained strong croppings of pyrites and stalaguutic melantente, or sulphates ot iron, running along the surface for a distance of about four hundred tcet, but with an actual width of only eight inches, though the outcroppings pointed to a width of. several hundred feet. We had always believed that the .Underfoot was at least a book-miner, but bis knowledge of words • deceived us, perhaps the strong stain of iron imparted to the pyrites and sulphates caused him to believe it gold Of the Tenderfoot, himselt, there is little more to tell. In respect to his memory I will add that he was a "ood citizen, sincere, and conscientious. We found him lying in the mouth ot the tunnel, with his left hand clasped over a nugget of pyrites. The familiar sack, full of worthless rocks was lying at his side. We opened it and gazed curiously at its contents but no one laughed. It was all the same sulphates and pyrites, lumps of worthless granite, and galena which he mistook for nativo silver. " All is not gold that glitters, but the Tenderfoot had learned it too late, and so — . . W 7 ell when we spoke to him he made no answer. Then we shook him and found where the bullet had pierced his heart. AVe found also, where it had passed through the picture of Bessie Holzel, the girl with the hazel eyes. It was too far to take him back to Challis, so we im- ■ provised a coffin of pine boughs and placed him in the little tunnel. Then we covered him up with the ore he had taken from the mine. .Wc

re-set a location stake at the head of his grave, and marked it to the memory of the Tenderfoot. And thus passed from existence the bubble-bon-anza, of Custer county.—Scenic American.