COMSTOCK’S AFFINITY.
RETURN OF COMSTOCK’S WIFE.
CHAPTER IX.
COMSTOCK’S MATRIMONIAL VENTURE.
A short time before he sold his mining interests in Virginia City, Comstock was smitten by the tender passion and made a venture in the matrimonial time. It appears that a Mormon from Salt Lake, a little sore-eyed fellow named Carter, landed at the diggings one day with his wife and all his worldly effects on board of a dilapidated wagon, drawn by a pair of sorry nags.
The man said he desired to go to work, and if he could find employment would take up his residence in the diggings.
Comstock looked upon the fair features of the wife, and his susceptible heart was touched—his soul went out toward her as she sat there in the end of the little canvas-covered wagon, mournfully gazing out from the depths of her calico sun-bonnet. Having charge of the Ophir mine, as superintendent, Comstock hired the man and set him to work, being determined to keep the woman in the camp.
The Mormon pair made their home in their wagon, and in the course of a week or two it was observed that Comstock spent most of his time in the neighborhood of the vehicle, was all the time hanging about it. Finally he was one day seen seated upon the wagon tongue, smiling upon all nature, with the Mormon wife engaged in combing his hair. The next morning both Comstock and the wife were missing. The hair-combing had meant business—showed the sealing of a compact of some kind. The pair had made a bee-line for Washoe Valley, where a preacher acquaintance of Comstock’s—one of the old settlers of the country—married them after the manner of the “Gentiles.”