“Say, Jeff,” says Tennessee, “do you remember Tex who worked with me in that gulch down in old Tuolumne? ’twas long in the spring of ’50.”
“Oh, yes,” answered Jeff, “that tall, good-looking, blue-eyed chap.”
“Well, when I was up in the Salmon River country in ’65, I heard some of the miners speaking about a chap they called Tex, who was said to be an old Forty-niner, and was at work in a cañon a few miles above. I jest felt that he might be my old pard that I hadn’t seen or heard of for ten or twelve years, so I found the trail to the cañon and went up to see him. Yes, sure enough, ’twas Tex; I knew him as soon as I come in sight of him. He had found a rich spot and lived like a king. He put me onto a good claim in the cañon above him, and I worked there for about a year and made quite a raise; but I found the winters too cold for me up there, so I sold out and left. I tell you but Tex was clear grit, though. You remember the time when Barton Lee of Sacramento City busted up and swindled so many of the boys out of their gold dust? Well,
Tex had $5,000 worth of gold dust deposited there in Lee’s safe. I think ’twas long in the spring of ’50 that we first got the news that Lee had busted. The boys who had deposited their dust with him made a rush for Sacramento City, now, you bet. But, oh, pshaw! it wern’t any use. They couldn’t git anything. A few of them, I heard afterwards, made out to git a little something. Well, now, you see, when the news first come up, I asked Tex if he wasn’t goin’ down, for I noticed that he didn’t seem to hurry or fret about it. ‘Oh,’ says he, ‘I reckon I will, but there’s no hurry about it.’ Now Tex waited for some of the boys to return, and report what the prospect was, and then he started down. I tell you there was black sand in the corner of his eye as he stepped into the stage the next morning, and says I to myself, ‘Old Barton, old Barton, take keer of yourself, for you are agoin’ to have a visitor from old Tuolumne!’ Well, upon his arrival in Sacramento, he found Lee’s office, and in front of it was a large, powerful negro acting in the capacity of doorkeeper. Says Tex to him, ‘Is Mr. Lee in his office?’
“‘No, sah, no, sah, he am not, sah!’
“‘Well, I know a d—— d sight better,’ says Tex.
“‘Well, you can’t see him, sah, for he’s busy, sah.’
“But before the astonished doorkeeper could scrape himself together again from among the pile of old rubbish in the corner, Tex was inside the room, and with the door locked upon the inside.
“He found Mr. Lee alone, writing at his table. He laid his certificate of deposit upon the table in front of him, and remarked in a very quiet, pleasant manner: