before I'm done." It was the moment for which he had
waited. "Follow me, gentlemen."

He threw open the door of the adjoining room with a wide gesture, his
face radiant with elation.

The company stared, and well it might, for at a signal a miniature
placer mine started operation.

The hotel porter shovelled imported sand into a sluice-box through which
a stream of water ran and at the end was the gold-saving device invented
by Mr. Sprudell which was to revolutionize placer-mining!

The sand contained the gold-dust that represented half of Bruce's
laborious summer's working and when Sprudell finally removed his coat
and cleaned up the sluice boxes and the gold-saving machine, the residue
left in the gold-pan was enough to give even a "'49'er" heart failure.

His triumph was complete. There was a note of awe even in Old Man "Gid"
Rathburn's voice, while Abe Cone fairly grovelled as he inquired:

"Is it all like that? Where does it come from? How did it git into that
dirt?"

Mr. Sprudell removed his eyeglasses with great deliberation and pursed
his lips:

"In my opinion," he said weightily--he might have been an eminent
geologist giving his opinion of the conglomerate of the Rand banket, or
Agricola elucidating his theory of vein formation--"in my opinion the
gold found in this deposit was derived from the disintegration of
gold-bearing rocks and veins in the mountains above. Chemical and
mechanical processes are constantly freeing the gold from the rocks with
which it is associated and wind and water carry it to lower levels,
where, as in this instance, it concentrates and forms what we call
placers."

Mr. Sprudell spoke so slowly and chose his words with such care that the
company received the impression that this theory of placer deposit was
his own and in spite of their personal prejudice their admiration grew.

"As undoubtedly you know," continued Mr. Sprudell, tapping his glasses
judicially upon the edge of the sluice-box, "the richest gold in all
alluvial deposits--"

"What is an alluvial deposit?" inquired Abe Cone, eagerly.

Mr. Sprudell looked hard at Abram but did not answer, one reason being
that he wished to rebuke the interruption, and another that he did not
know. He reiterated: "The richest gold in all alluvial deposits is found
upon bed-rock. This placer, gentlemen, is no exception and while it is
pay-dirt from the grass roots and the intermediate sand and gravel
abundantly rich to justify