nt metallic luster, sparkling with curious crystals.
"Sylvanite--twenty-five per cent, gold an' twelve an' a half silver.
Veined in the porphyry. There's a young assayer come in last night. He
'lows it's sylvanite, same as they have over to Boulder County in
Colorado. He comes from the Boulder School of Mines. He's a kid, but I
w'udn't wonder but he knows what he's talkin' about. Some calls it
telluride. But it's gold, all right, an' there's a big vein of it close
to the surface on the knoll east side of Flivver Crick."

They passed the heavy mineral from hand to hand, examining it with eager
curiosity. Simpson rambled on.

"Over five hundred in camp an' more comin' all the time. The rush ain't
started yet. Goin' to be an old-time boom, sure. Bound to make money ef
you don't hold on too long. Peg you out a claim or two 'long that east
bank, Sandy. Don't matter 'ef she's located or not, you can sell it fo'
mo'n you'll ever git out of it by workin' it.

"This man Plimsoll aims to make him a fortune," he continued. "He's got
a gang of bullies with him who're stakin' out the best claims an'
jumpin' others. He's runnin' a game wild. He's here to clean up. I tell
you, Sandy, the sheriff ought to be on the job on the start of a rush
like this. But he's t'other end of the county, they tell me, an' likely
he won't hear of it for three-four days. And by that time she may have
blew up ag'in," he closed pessimistically. "Blew up once, did Dynamite.
This may be jest a flash in the pan, a grass-root outcrop. That's the
way she started when old man Casey drifted in an' his burro kicked up
pay-ore. Damn--dern--few of this crowd'll ever stop to run shaft or
tunnel. Though this young assayin' feller talks big about folds an'
uplifts, synclines an' anticlines. Claims the po'phyry is syncline. You
got to catch it where the fold is shaller or else dig half-way to China.
You still in the cow business, Sandy?"

So he chatted until fresh customers came in and claimed his skill and
steaks. Miranda Bailey and her companions finished the meal and started
out.

The Casey claims were on the east side of the creek, Sandy knew. The old
prospector's lore, or instinct, had been unfailing. It remained to see
if his marks and monuments had been respected. Molly had said that the
assessment work had been done, and she had so described the place in a
narrow terrace of the hill that Sandy felt sure of finding them without
trouble.

He pointed out a s