ttle thought convinced him that all such expedients would be in
vain, because Jordan had, as he said, "enlisted fo' the wah," and
Sedgwick realized that if on any pretext he sent him away, the suspicion
might arise in Jordan's mind that the object was a selfish one, now that
the labor and anxiety of making the enterprise a success had well-nigh
passed.

So he decided that the thing to do was to hurry the work in hand to
culmination. The rainy season was pretty well over, and the material for
the mill was pushed forward with reasonable dispatch. It was all on the
ground, set up, and in motion in fifty days.

Sedgwick found on reaching the mine that Jordan had built the needed
houses, and had the mill as nearly completed as it could be before the
machinery was set in place.

The ore crushed easily, and the mill reduced two tons and a half per
stamp readily in every twenty-four hours, in thirty days crushing 3,000
tons. It yielded in the mill $35 per ton, and at the end of thirty days
there were bars of the value of $100,000 ready for shipment. Then
Sedgwick said: "Come, Tom, our work is finished here, at least for the
present; let us seek civilization."

"Agreed, old friend," said Jordan. "I'll get my trophies together and be
ready ter start in ther morning."

"And what are your trophies?" asked Sedgwick.

"Why, didn't I tell yer?" was the reply. "It got kinder lonesome while
yo' war away, so I went on a hunt. I've got ther finest pair o' leopard
skins yo' ever seen, some elephant tusks, 'nd I migh'er brought a sarpent
skin that war a daisy, but I drew ther line on snakes. But he war
twenty-three feet long, and ther look outer his eyes war not reassurin'
by a blamed sight. I migh'er got a giraff skin, too, but she hed her baby
with her, and I'm not breakin' up no giraffe families."

It was understood that they were to leave in the morning; were to go in
the covered spring wagon, and were to carry the gold.

One of the English miners was made superintendent of the mine. The
mill-men from San Francisco agreed to look after the mill for a year,
and the civil engineer undertook to see to the books, to attend to the
finances and send an express to the coast once a week.

So Sedgwick and Jordan, with one Boer, started early in the morning. It
was in the last week in May; the weather was cold for that region, for it
was the beginning of winter.

They drove out of the narrow valley, through the canon, out upon the open