When Joe Plato died she took her millions to San Francisco, married a rich merchant, became a social leader and the mother of nabobs.
One morning at breakfast Myra informed me that I could get to Bradbury Well, a famous landmark on the road to Death Valley. To break the routine, I went. The route leads over Salsbury Pass, named for Jack Salsbury--a congenital promoter who was forever hunting something to promote. He had made and lost fortunes in cattle, lumber, and mines and for a while lived at Shoshone.
In a ravine near Bradbury Well were two or three dugouts. In one was the ubiquitous Rocky Mountain George--lean, seamed, and soft voiced. On the box he used for a table lay a letter mailed in Denver and bearing this address: "Rocky Mountain George, Nevada." Known all over the gold belt, a dozen postmasters had sent it from town to town and now it had caught up with George.
Meeting George a few weeks later in Beatty I recalled our meeting. He hadn't shaved in a week and his torn overalls were covered with grime. A well-tailored gentleman came out of the hotel across the street and stepped into a smart car. "Hey, Jim--" George called. "Come over here a minute...." The man left his car and walked over. "Jim, I want you to meet my friend...." Jim and I shook hands. "Jim's our governor," George added and I looked again at Nevada's Governor James Scrugham, later its U. S. Senator. For an hour he and George talked of canyons in which, they decided, somebody would find a billion dollars and I decided Democracy was safe on the desert.
Walking up the wash from George's dugout I was surprised to see a slim blonde with blue eyes and a nice smile. Obviously she had just left her stove, for she had a steaming pot of coffee in her hand. I made some inane remark about the beauty of the morning.
"It's nearly always like this," she said and after a moment I was sitting on the bench outside the dugout sipping coffee. I learned that her name was Helen. "Why shouldn't I try prospecting? I've nothing to lose. I had a job clerking, but I just couldn't scrimp enough to pay for medicine and the doctors' bills."
That and the telltale spot on her cheek seemed reason enough for her presence and, as she explained, "I might make a strike."