estion
as to where she'd horn in."

"I had no idea Miss Casey would be like--what she is," said Westlake, as
Miranda Bailey, Mormon in attendance, came out of the house.

"Time fo' me to be trailin' back," said the spinster. "Moon's risin'.
Good night, Mr. Westlake. See you ag'in before you go, I hope. I reckon
you sure gave me good advice when you said to take cash fo' my claims."

She climbed into the machine which Mormon cranked. It moved off, Mormon
watching it. Then Sam came out and joined them.

"Gels gone to bed," he announced. "What's Keith doin' up to Casey Town,
Westlake?"

"It won't take long to tell you."

The four walked over to the corral and the three partners climbed on the
top rail, ranch-fashion. Westlake stood before them.

"Practically all the gold found in Casey Town comes from the main gulch
where the creek runs. The gulch was once non-existent. It is likely
there was a hill there. Its nub was a porphyry cap, the rest of it was
composed of layers of porphyry and valueless rock dipping downward,
nested like saucers in the synclinal layers. Ice and water wore off the
nub and leveled the hill, then gouged out the gulch. They ground away,
in my belief, all the porphyry that held gold except the portions now
lying either side of the gulch. That gold was distributed far down the
creek, carried by glacier and stream. Casey found indications and worked
up to where he believed he had struck the mother vein. He did strike it
but it had been worn down like the blade of an old knife.

"It was the top layers that held the richest ore. Of those that are left
only one carries it and that is the reef that outcrops here and there
both sides of the gulch. This isn't theory. All strikes have been made
in this top layer. Where they have sunk through to a lower porphyry
stratum they have found only indications where they found anything at
all. But the strikes were rich because sylvanite is one of the richest
of all gold ores. They look big and they encourage further development
and--what is more to the point--further investment. Some of the strikes
have been on the Keith Group properties. They have boosted the stock of
all of them.

"I have been developing these group projects. The value of group
promotion, to the promoter, is, that as long as one claim shows promise,
the shares keep selling. The public loves to gamble. Keith came back
this trip and proposed to purchase a lot of claims that are nothing but
p