** Lost Gold At The Dead Man's Mine ** A Miners Journal **

[GhostMiner]

   April 22   1937   Part Three

 

   When we got back inside the entire crowd was all stirred up. Some had come out to witness the activities while others were watching from the windows. Slim had put on quite a show. One of the guys came over and wanted to shake our hands and buy us drinks. We accepted the offer but Slim had an idea of his own. He hollered out inquiring who was the best whiskey drinker in town. One of the men said Jeff Johnson could outdrink any man in town. Slim told the guy to go get him as he wanted to challenge him to a drinking contest for $50. The guy went to get him. Then Slim came over to me and quietly asked if I’d stake him the $50 as he was broke. I said sure and eventually Jeff Johnson came walking in. He was over six feet in height and must have weighed in at 250 pounds.

   Now the crowd was surrounding the table we were at and Jeff and Slim set up the rules. The bartender would time the contest out at exactly one hour. Shots would be poured for Slim and Jeff as they downed each glass. Whoever had drunk the most shots after one hour won the prize. However, the winner had to keep the whiskey down and be able to walk out of the tavern on his own accord at the end of the hour. The barkeep brought over two bottles and poured out the first two shots. The contest was on.

   TO BE CONTINUED  ................

[GhostMiner]

Still out on tour with my rock show. More journal to come soon. Happy 4th to everyone!!

[Bedrocker]

Happy 4th of July to you too Ghost Miner!!

I was just catching up on reading a few pages of the story and it for sure is getting interesting. But it looks like Slim is bad news.  They should have never let that guy join up. Death follows that dude like flies on crap.

[GhostMiner]

On 7/4/2022 at 10:22 AM, Bedrocker said:

Happy 4th of July to you too Ghost Miner!!

I was just catching up on reading a few pages of the story and it for sure is getting interesting. But it looks like Slim is bad news.  They should have never let that guy join up. Death follows that dude like flies on crap.

I will be getting some posts up today & tomorrow. Been a bust week. Slim is one of a kind for sure.

[GhostMiner]

   April 22   1937   Part Four

   The shots started going down and some of the crowd was cheering on their local favorite but some were hollering encouragement out to Slim. Slim started out downing a shot a minute. He told us to call out each minute. Jeff was just downing them as fast as he could put them down. After fifteen minutes Jeff had downed twenty shots and Slim was sitting comfortably at fifteen. Jeff was starting to look a little funny and his speech was beginning to slur just a bit.

   Slim kept up the shot per minute pace all the way to thirty minutes where he overtook Jeff. Jeff tried to keep up but at the forty minute mark he attempted to stand up and lost all of his efforts as everything he had consumed came up. He had made it to thirty five drinks. Seeing as Slim had now made the count of forty and had won the contest he stopped. It was hard to believe but he was able to get up and walk out the door on his own. Then he came back in and collected his money. The crowd gave him a big cheer. He bought drinks for the bar and the crew stayed inside while I followed Slim outside and into the parking lot where he heaved up what he had drunk. We went back inside and stayed until closing time. I didn’t see Slim drink anything more that night but the rest of the crew and I had ourselves a hell of a good time. 

   Some of the guys in the crowd came over to me and said how bad they felt when they heard about what happened to my brother. They also thanked us for cleaning out the rif raf that had taken over the area. It seemed that the law was next to worthless there and wasn’t up to doing their jobs. What they had failed to do we did for them. All in all it was a good night except I felt bad for Dutch. I was hoping things would be ok between him and Slim. 

   TO BE CONTINUED ...............

[geof_junk]

Slim is refused a drink in the pub because of the trouble he caused the night before; "What do you mean, I've never been in this pub before" Slim protested, "Well you must have a double then" the bartender said, "Good, make it a double whiskey" Slim replied  ?

[GhostMiner]

11 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Slim is refused a drink in the pub because of the trouble he caused the night before; "What do you mean, I've never been in this pub before" Slim protested, "Well you must have a double then" the bartender said, "Good, make it a double whiskey" Slim replied  ?

Nobody refuses Slim of anything unless they are tired of living.

[GhostMiner]

   April 23   1937

 

   I wasn’t up very long and was making a good breakfast when a deputy came trudging into camp. What now I thought? He was investigating the incident with Slim and the shooting demonstration from last night. I played dumb and told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He asked the crew and they all said the same. Slim was not in his tent. He must have seen the deputy coming.

   The law dog told us that Slim was bad news and that if we were hiding him it would not go well for us. I told him we didn’t know any “Slim” and had seen many drifters come and go on or near our claims. The deputy said he had a warrant for his arrest for reckless use of a firearm as well as strong armed robbery. I just told him that if we see any strangers we will let him know. With that the deputy walked out of camp.

   I continued with my breakfast and about fifteen minutes later Slim walked back into camp. He had been hiding at the edge of the woods and heard everything the deputy had told me. I asked Slim what the facts were. Slim said it was all a bunch of bull and he never robbed anyone. He said that one night he had scared the hell out of a guy and the man gave him some money just to avoid a well deserved beating. Slim said the guy had made some remarks he didn’t like and he was about to kick the shit out of him. As for the shooting display with Dutch, he said it was all in good fun. I let it slide but told Slim he might want to avoid going into town for a spell. Slim just looked at me with a grin and said there would need to be way more deputies in that town to take him back to jail. I just shrugged and said it’s his decision and we all went to work for a change. 

   We busted our tails and tried to make a good day of it in the pit but only got one ounce. I think we have another week or so of gravels to finish up and then it will be time to move our operation. I will be glad to get out of there as every time I turn my head I think I see my dead brother. It’s giving me the creeps.

   TO BE CONTINUED .................

[GhostMiner]

   April 24   1937   Part One

 

   Last night after supper I had thought we’d all turn in early and get a good night’s sleep but Slim had other ideas. He said he was restlas. Everyone had finally gone to bed but I stayed up with him for a while. He started drinking and talking about how the deputy had a lot of nerve coming into our camp and threatening to arrest him. He said he wanted to go into town and talk with the law and straighten them out. He said he was going with or without me and would hitch a ride. I told him to hold on and went over to Sarge and told him we were taking my truck into town. I said I was just dropping Slim off and would be back soon.

   We drove onto Main Street and I dropped Slim off in front of the Sheriff's station. He was his own man and on his own now. I was going to drive off but decided to wait and watch from about half a block down the street. I parked the truck and turned off the lights.

   I heard Slim hollering outside the building. He was hollering for the deputies to come out and face him man to man. I felt sick inside and figured this was not going to end well. I smelled death in the air.

   TO BE CONTINUED  .................