wn
on the roadside by some blister-footed adventurer on his way to the
mines.

We pacified the man a second time; and by this period we were at the
shaft, and ready to descend. Fred insisted upon going first, and after
him the Irishman, while I hailed a passing patrolman, and got him to
extend the same favor to myself, when I got ready to be lowered in the
bucket.

"Well, Fred," I shouted, "have we been hoaxed or not? Is it a blarney
stone or a lump of gold that Mike has found?"

"Pull up," yelled Fred, and I heard some heavy substance thrown into the
bucket.

"I'll see you hanged first," I retorted. "You are not going to make me
draw up a fifty pound piece of quartz, and then laugh at me for my
labor."

"Pull up quick," cried Fred, in an eager voice; and I heard a howl from
the Irishman at my obstinacy.

"In the name of the saints, up wid it, good master Jim," pleaded Mike;
but I rather hesitated, strengthened in the view which I took in the
matter by the policeman.

"It's little gold that was ever taken from this claim, sir," he said,
"although it has paid one or two proprietors by speculation. The soil is
not of the right kind for large nuggets."

"How big is it?" I asked, addressing those who were some thirty feet
below me.

"About as large as your head," was Fred's reply.

"Is it solid?" I demanded.

"It looks to be! But don't stand there asking questions, when you can
satisfy yourself. Round up the bucket."

I began to think that the Irishman's dream was true, and that the
whiskey had not taken possession of his senses.

Fred was not in the habit of indulging in practical jokes; and I finally
concluded that I might as well satisfy myself whether a stone or a lump
of gold was in the bucket. I wound up the windlass, while the policeman
peeked down the long, dark shaft, eagerly watching for the bucket, to
see what it contained.

"Do you see any thing?" I asked, when I thought that it was near enough
to get a glimpse of its contents.

Before I could repeat the question, the eyes of the patrolman glared as
though starting from their sockets, and his face flushed scarlet.

"Up with it, in the name of goodness," my companion shouted, leaning
over the shaft, and grasping the rope that held the bucket in one hand,
and attempting to pull it up, regardless of the rough windlass that I
was working at.

"Can you see it?" I demanded, resting from my labor for a moment, and
glancing down the shaft.

"D