Silver and Gold: A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining CampCoolidge, Dane
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Silver and Gold: A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp
Coolidge, Dane
Gold mines and mining -- Fiction; Silver mines and mining -- Fiction; Western stories
The day had dawned on the summit of Apache Leap and a golden eagle,
wheeling high above the crags, flashed back the fire of the sun from his
wings; but in the valley below where old Pinal lay sleeping the heat had
not begun. A cool wind drew down from the black mouth of Queen Creek
Canyon, stirring the listless leaves of the willows, and the shadow of
the great cliff fell like a soothing hand on the deserted town at its
base. In the brief freshness of the morning there was a smell of
flaunting green from the sycamores along the creek, and the tang of
greasewood from the ridges; and then, from the chimney of a massive
stone house, there came the odor of smoke. A coffee mill began to purr
from the kitchen behind and a voice shouted a summons to breakfast, but
the hobo miner who lay sprawling in his blankets did not answer the
peremptory call. He raised his great head, turned his pig eyes toward
the house, then covered his face from the flies.
There was a clatter of dishes, a long interval of silence, and then the
sun like a flaming disc topped the mountain wall to the east. The square
adobe houses cast long black shadows across the whitened dust of the
street and as the man burrowed deeper to keep out the light the door of
the stone house slammed. The day seldom passed when Bunker Hill's wife
did not cook for three or four hoboes but when Old Bunk called a man in
to breakfast he expected him to come. He stood for a minute, tall and
rangy and grizzled, a desert squint in one eye; and then with a muttered
oath he strode across the street.
"Hey!" he called prodding the blankets with his boot and the hobo came
alive with a jump.
"You look out!" he snarled, bounding violently to his feet and dropping
back to a crouch; but when he met Bunker Hill's steely eyes he mumbled
something and lowered his hands.
"All right, pardner," observed Hill, "I'll do all of that; but if you
figure on getting any breakfast you'd better come in and eat it."
"Huh!" responded the hobo scowling and blinking at the sun and then
without a word he started for the house. He was a big, hulking man, with
arms like a bear and bulging, bench-like legs; but the expression on his
face above his enormous black mustache was that of a disgruntled
ground-hog. His nose was tipped up, his eyes were small and stubborn and
as he ate a hurried breakfast he glanced about uneasily as if fearful of
some trap; yet if Bunker Hill had any reservations about his guest he
did not abate his hospitality. The coffee was still hot, there was
plenty of everything and when the miner rose to go Old Bunk accompanied
him to the door.
"Going to be hot," he observed as the heat struck through their clothes;
but the hobo omitted even a nod of assent in his haste to be off down
the trail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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