The Argosy — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE PRIZE OF THE MISSING GOLD MINE. 229 the naturally fine points of the animal, which plainly had been a remarkable beast in its day; and before the packing was completed he began to think better of his chances to get some good service out of the old mule. ‘‘Mulato has stuff in him yet for the work you have to do,’’ said the mayordomo, as Campthorne started away. ‘‘It was the mule of Pedro Sanchez, and there was no animal in the Mesilla Valley to compare with Mulato in his day. Pedro was a strange man. He would go into the moun- tains, no one could ever find out where, and, after staying away for months, would come back bringing his buckskin bags filled with gold dust and lumps of yellow gold. Carvamba/ It was fine times for the keepers of the fondas and the moute tables when he came in from his trips. But Pedro went into the mountains one time too many and did not come back. Years afterwards, in a fight with the Apaches, our people recaptured his mule, old Mulato here, so it was pretty certain what had been the fate of Pedro. That was sad - and what was sadder still, the secret of where he found his gold perished with him. Well, senor, good luck go with you. Favor the old mule for a few days till he gets the SHINES out of his joints, and his pesormenre will surprise you. ddzos, senor.’ Campthorne said good by to the mayordomo, and, with old Mulato limping stiffly after him, turned his back to the plaza and set out to find his fortune, with Lola as the prize of his success. _ | *K *k *K *k *K *k Campthorne had decided that his best chance of success lay in prospecting the Diablo Range, the rough mountain chain where the Gila River has its rise. The Diablos he knew had not been often visited by white men owing to their forbidding aspect, the superstitious fears of the Mexicans, and the fact that they were noted as a lurking place for Apaches. So Campthorne, careless of risks, pushed out boldly towards this wild range, thinking of it only as a promising field for new discoveries. He did not expéct to find the Cincha Larga mine, which he was inclined to regard as a myth—but he hoped to discover a lead of such richness that the exhibition of specimens from it would knock down the opposition to him in the house of Don Albino Montoya. He traveled slowly at first soas to favor Mulato, and he perceived with pleasure that the old mule held up well under his burden, and moved along with brisker step day by day. He passed the Mimbres Mountains, crossed the dry plain beyond, and one week from the time he started, had entered the gloomy, pine grown defiles of the Devil’s Range and found himself once more on likely prospecting ground. ‘Then his search for signs of gold and silver began, and he worked early and late, to little avail. Up hill and down dale he traveled, threading canyous and crossing ridges, but never a promis- ing lead could he find. Patiently he scanned the cliffs, hunted for fragments of mineral rock at the foot of slopes, and followed ‘‘ float ’’ up steep mountain sides, but it all led to nothing. He kept tally of the days that passed by cutting a notch each day ina stick, and he saw the notches grow to sevens, and then to thirties, until with but few days left of the time allotted him, he found himself no better off than at the beginning. EOmicbooks (S@)