For a moment no one spoke and then the man with the scar said abruptly,
"I'm sure that's old Sime Moultrie's coat."
Again there was a brief silence before the man continued, "He was a
strange duffer. I have seen him off an' on the last fifteen year. He never
gave up his search for a mine and I guess he never found one. Strange how
a man will keep on as if he was all possessed when he has once got started
prospecting."
"What do you suppose happened to him?" inquired Fred.
"There's no tellin' as long as I didn't see the skeleton. Zeke here ought
to know."
"I don't know anything 'bout it," said Zeke gruffly.
"Well, the possibilities are," said the man with the scar, "that he took
sick an' died. He must have been all alone and nobody can tell how long he
may have been sick. As I rec'lect, he used to come in about ev'ry Spring
and Fall for fresh supplies. He wouldn't 'low any one to go with him and
he didn't have much to say to any one when he came in to the town."
"Did you find any papers in the coat?" inquired the second stranger, who
up to this time had seldom spoken.
"Not very much. We couldn't find anything with his name on it," explained
Zeke, "so we couldn't be sure whose bones they were."
"You didn't find any papers at all?" again inquired the man.
"We didn't find anything that showed who he was," said Zeke slowly, "same
as I told you."
"The coat then is the only thing you have got to identify him with?"
"We found a pick-axe and spade and hammer," explained Zeke.
"Have you got them here?"
"Yes, they're somewhere about the camp. I don't know just where we did put
them."
"Better let us have a look at them."
"It's too dark to see them now. Wait 'till mornin'."
"We aren't going to wait until morning," laughed the man with the scar.
"We've got a long hike and we thought we would make part of it before
sun-up. It's a good deal cooler travelin' at night, and especially when
there's a good moon, than it is to crawl across those tablelands when the
thermometer is about a hundred and ten in the shade; and there isn't any
shade."
"Better wait until mornin'," said Zeke abruptly.
"No, we're goin' now. Come on, Jim," the man added, as he turned to his
companion. "It's time for us to be movin'."
Without further words the two strange visitors departed from the camp and
soon disappeared along the winding way that lead to the summit.
"That's a nice thing you did, Jack!" exclaimed Fred angrily as soon as the
two men were gone.
"What's the harm?" retorted John. "I didn't tell them anything about any
lost mine."
"You didn't have to," retorted Fred, "after what they said. They had
heard about a man dying, though how they ever knew beats me. And they
believed that he was the man who was reported to have found a great lead."
"What of it?"
"A good deal of it," joined in Grant. "You have given them an idea and
they won't forget it."
"What good is an idea?" demanded John. "They haven't any paper and they
can't find the place without it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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