Word: colney
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Dates: during 1883-1883
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...they'll ever get back to the railroad without being robbed! Last night the 'Company' - that's myself and the four others who are working my mine - had a meeting and made Elsie a joint owner of the mine, with one sixth interest. One man, Colney, opposed it, but the others were so near shooting him that he came round in no time. So she is going down the mine to-morrow, - and, by the way, you had better go down at the same time. We've got nothing as yet but a hand-windlass, with a big bucket...
While Elsie was being let down, I caught a few words of whispered talk between Travers and the others, from which I inferred that they were still suspicious of Colney, the man who had opposed Elsie's election into the "Company," and so had managed to put him at work in a side drift, leading off about half way down the shaft, which, as no vein of ore had been "struck" there, it was not worth while for us to visit...
...rope had been worn half through by the spades. The "pard," however, insisted that it was quite comfortable, that the rope was strong enough yet to hold a dozen; and he enforced his remarks with a dig of his elbow into my ribs which recalled to me that Colney was in the drift above, and that this might be a precaution. So I made no further opposition, and we were soon swinging in mid air, with the growing spot of sky above, the black abyss below and the rough, damp walls around, just out of our reach...
...upper drift, I could not keep down a growing feeling of uneasiness. I made Elsie keep quiet under pretence of listening to a noise from the top; and when we rose to the level of the black opening I strained eye and ear to catch some sign of what Colney was doing. All was dark and silent, however; and I was just heaving a sigh of relief as we rose to the top of the opening, when, quick as a serpent's tongue, a spade-handle, with a long knife lashed to the end, darted out of the shadow...
That night Colney was lynched; and Elsie and I, seated on the roof of a prairie-wagon, were borne in triumphal procession through the town...