They cleaned out the cabin and took possession of it, and the
next time they went to town Cash made cautious inquiries about
the place. It was, he learned, an old abandoned claim. Abandoned
chiefly because the old miner who had lived there died one day,
and left behind him all the marks of having died from starvation,
mostly. A cursory examination of his few belongings had revealed
much want, but no gold save a little coarse dust in a small
bottle.
"About enough to fill a rifle ca'tridge," detailed the teller
of the tale. "He'd pecked around that draw for two, three year
mebby. Never showed no gold much, for all the time he spent
there. Trapped some in winter--coyotes and bobcats and skunks,
mostly. Kinda off in the upper story, old Nelson was. I guess he
just stayed there because he happened to light there and didn't
have gumption enough to git out. Hills is full of old fellers
like him. They live off to the'rselves, and peck around and git a
pocket now and then that keeps 'm in grub and tobacco. If you
want to use the cabin, I guess nobody's goin' to care. Nelson
never had any folks, that anybody knows of. Nobody ever bothered
about takin' up the claim after he cashed in, either. Didn't seem
worth nothin' much.
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