headache. Monte & Pete
did not come in. Bud went after them & found them 4 miles away where
we killed the Gila monster. Sent 2 samples from big ledge to Tucson for
assay. Daddy better.

June 15.

Up 2.30. Bud left for Bend at 4. Walked down to flat but could not see
stock. About 3 Cora & Colt came in for water & Sway & Ed from the south
about 5. No Monte. Monte got in about midnight & went past kitchen to
creek on run. Got up, found him very nervous & frightened & tied him up.

June 17.

Bud got back 4 P.M. in gale of wind & sand. Burros did not come in for
water. Very hot. Bud brought canned stuff. Rigged gallows for No.
2 shaft also block & tackle & pail for drinking water, also washed
clothes. While drying went around in cap undershirt & shoes.

June 18.

Burros came in during night for water. Hot as nether depths of infernal
regions. Went up on hill a mile away. Seamed with veins similar to shaft
No. 2 ore. Blew in two faces & got good looking ore seamed with a black
incrustation, oxide of something, but what could not determine. Could
find neither silver nor copper in it. Monte & Pete came in about 1 &
tied them up. Very hot. Hottest day yet, even the breeze scorching. Test
of ore showed best yet. One half of solution in tube turning to chloride
of gold, 3 tests showing same. Burros except Ed & Cora do not come in
days any more. Bud made a gate for kitchen to keep burros out.

The next morning it was that Cash cut the ball of his right thumb open
on the sharp edge of a tomato can. He wanted the diary to go on as
usual. He had promised, he said, to keep one for the widow who wanted
a record of the way the work was carried on, and the progress made. Bud
could not see that there had been much progress, except as a matter of
miles. Put a speedometer on one of his legs, he told Cash, and he'd bet
it would register more mileage chasing after them fool burros than his
auto stage could show after a full season. As for working the widow's
claim, it was not worth working, from all he could judge of it. And if
it were full of gold as the United States treasury, the burros took up
all their time so they couldn't do much. Between doggone stock drinking
or not drinking and the darn fool diary that had to be kept, Bud opined
that they needed an extra hand or two. Bud was peevish, these days. Gila
Bend had exasperated him because it was not the town it called itself,
but a huddle of adobe huts. He had come away in the sou