proposition, with the
promise that they should hear more, and now, after a dash through
"Spurr's Geology Applied to Mining," he was prepared to tell them all
that their restricted intelligences could comprehend.

When the right moment arrived, Mr. Sprudell arose impressively. In an
attentive silence, he gave an instructive sketch of the history of
gold-mining, beginning with the plundering expeditions of Darius and
Alexander, touching lightly on the mines of Iberia which the Roman
wrestled from the Carthagenians, and not forgetting, of course, the
conquest of Mexico and Peru inspired by the desire for gold.

When his guests were properly impressed by the wide range of his
reading, he skillfully brought the subject down to modern mines and
methods, and at last to his own incredible good fortune, after hardships
of which perhaps they already had heard, in securing one hundred and
sixty acres of valuable placer-ground in the heart of a wild and
unexplored country--a country so dangerous and inaccessible that he
doubted very much if it had ever been trod by any white foot beside his
own and old "Bill" Griswold's.

The climax came when he dramatically announced his intention of making a
stock company of his acquisition and permitting Bartlesville's leading
citizens to subscribe!

Mr. Sprudell's guests received the news of the privilege which was to be
accorded them in an unenthusiastic silence. In fact his unselfish
kindness seemed to inspire uneasiness rather than gratitude in
Bartlesville's leading citizens. They could bring themselves to swallow
his dinners, but to be coerced into buying his mining stock was a
decidedly bitter dose.

Well-meaning but tactless, Abe Cone expressed the general feeling, when
he observed:

"I been stung once, already, and I ain't lookin' for it again."

To everyone's surprise Abe got off unscathed. In fact Mr. Sprudell
laughed good-naturedly.

"Stung, Abe--that's the word. And why?" He answered himself. "Because
you were investing in something you did not understand."

"It _looked_ all right," Abe defended. "You could see the gold stickin'
out all over the rock, but I was 'salted' so bad I never got enough to
drink since. I don't understand this placer-mining either, when it comes
to that."

Adolph Gotts, who had been a butcher, specializing in sausage, before he
became a city contractor, was about to say the same thing, when Sprudell
interrupted triumphantly:

"Ah, but you will