Then He Worked Back Down One Or Another Of The Nearly
Parallel Ranges That Lie Out Desertward, And So Down To The Sink Of
The Mojave River, Burrowing To Oblivion In The Sand,--A Big
Mysterious Land, A Lonely, Inhospitable Land, Beautiful, Terrible.
But he came to no harm in it; the land tolerated him as it might a
gopher or a badger.
Of all its inhabitants it has the least
concern for man.
There are many strange sorts of humans bred in a mining
country, each sort despising the queernesses of the other, but of
them all I found the Pocket Hunter most acceptable for his clean,
companionable talk. There was more color to his reminiscences than
the faded sandy old miners "kyoteing," that is, tunneling like a
coyote (kyote in the vernacular) in the core of a lonesome hill.
Such a one has found, perhaps, a body of tolerable ore in a poor
lead,--remember that I can never be depended on to get the terms
right,--and followed it into the heart of country rock to no
profit, hoping, burrowing, and hoping. These men go harmlessly mad
in time, believing themselves just behind the wall of
fortune--most likable and simple men, for whom it is well to do any
kindly thing that occurs to you except lend them money. I have
known "grub stakers" too, those persuasive sinners to whom you make
allowances of flour and pork and coffee in consideration of the
ledges they are about to find; but none of these proved so much
worth while as the Pocket Hunter.
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