His anticipated happiness, his pompous joy, his earthly prosperity, his vanity and vain-glory, all were over. Had he died by any other method, it might have been said that it was well that his death occurred before he discovered that Bertha Allen, to whom he had given all that was tender in his coarse and pompous life, had cruelly deceived him.
It mattered not now, the decision of the higher courts of earth, but rather the decision of that higher court in heaven. A sounding splash from murky waters far below resounded back to the outer world like a farewell echo, and Rufus Grim’s mangled remains rested near the gold he loved so well. Yes, in the vault where his manhood had been bartered for gold, he slept. There was gold on [217] every side—gold above him and gold beneath him—a priceless mausoleum.
Yes, at last, all that was mortal of the man of inordinate worldly ambition and restless energy, reposed in the monotonous sleep of unbroken stillness.
HE next [218] day Rufus Grim was missed from the Peacock. His manager could not understand it. Never before had he absented himself from his office without giving the most detailed instructions in regard to work in the mine. When the following morning came and he was still absent, the manager’s fears ripened into genuine alarm and soon all the people of Gold Bluff were discussing the mystery of Rufus Grim’s disappearance.
A vigorous search was instituted, which resulted a few days later in finding his lifeless body at the bottom of the old prospect shaft. At the coroner’s inquest it was decided that he had been murdered, as was evidenced by peculiar wounds on the back of his head.
He was laid to rest by the side of his deceased wife, with a demonstration that far excelled any funeral that had ever taken place in Gold Bluff. Such a cowardly murder excited the sympathy of all who knew him. They forgot the pompous, over-bearing owner of the Peacock, in listening to the minister’s pious words of commendation over the mangled remains of Rufus Grim, the citizen.
The mystery surrounding his demise appealed to all law-abiding citizens to help hunt down the assassin. In [219] the feverish excitement it was remembered that Hank Casey and Steve Gibbons were sworn enemies of the rich mine owner; indeed, the latter had even threatened his life in the presence of numerous witnesses.