The Argosy, Vol. 76, No. 3 — page 64: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

534 At the lip of the overhang he could hear the distant growling of the stamp- mill. It was faint, however, and if there had been any stirring about in the gully he would have been aware of it. It was impossible for him either to see or to hear anything of his mys- terious enemies. When he returned he found that the girl had lighted a candle. The light fell over her face, bringing out and accentuating each softly molded line. Her large eyes met his wistfully, ap- pealingly, as she put the candle in his hand and pointed to the breast of the level. “There!” she whispered. ‘“ Look at the vein—the one I found—the one my father and I developed—the ledge that makes the Mariquita Mine worth half a million! Examine it, Mr. Bremerton.” “ He walked to the breast, brushed his hand over the surface of the rocks, held the candle close, and bent forward. Another moment and he staggered back astounded, scarcely breathing. | -He knew—none better—the full worth of what he saw. Prospecting was his trade, and often he had horn- spooned samples of crushed ore and found values that would have turned many a man’s head. But never had he seen anything to compare with the in- dications of that bonanza lead! CHAPTER XVIII. THE WILES OF A TRICKSTER. “Rico?” said Mariquita passively. “Rich!” he gasped. “ Well, it’s the richest thing this side of the Comstock lode! And the vein’s a foot wide and a true fissure. Such veins increase in values as you go down on them. What will the assays be a hundred feet, or a thousand feet, below? It’s a—a—” Words failed him. His voice trailed off into wondering ‘silence. “There’s not much outcropping on THE ARGOSY. top of the hill,” she said, her even tones contrasting queerly with his hoarse, vehement words. “TI picked up just one insignificant piece of *float’ and trailed the clue until I had uncovered a mere ‘ stringer.’ “But that stringer was so rich that father and I covered up the opening and obliterated every sign of mineral. F.very man at the mine was discharged and not one suspected a ‘ strike.’ ““T guess we were wrong in doing that. The theory was correct, but it did not work out well. I worked side by side with father, digging that tun- nel. We were months at it, and we guarded every move we made. The waste from the tunnel we pitched into a hole beside the overhang and covered it with brush. “When we began to take out ore we hauled it in sacks up the side of the gully. Father fired and ran the engine at the mill, and I stood over the plates, dosing them with ‘ quick.’ “ We'd run a day, then have a clean- up, and spend a week getting out more ore. You'd hardly believe, Mr. Brem- erton, the way the amalgam ridged it- self up on those plates! The gold tumbled out of the sieves and banked up so high in front of the battery- boxes that we-had to scrape it away every half-hour. “Father was like a boy. ‘Twenty years dropped from his shoulders. He skipped back and forth between the en- gine-room and the batteries, and every once in a while he would stop to pat me on the shoulder and laugh, ‘ Girl, we're made! A palace and all the big things in life for you, ’way out there in the East! Mallorys are coming into their own.’ * But he was too quick with his hur- rahs. We had spent so much time ion the tunnel that we couldn’t mine and mill enough ore to pay for the property.” Into the mild depths of her eyes came a swift change. She clutched her hands and wrung them convul- sively. At last, so help me, the COMicdoo S CO@