the capitalist frankly told max and len, as the three sat a little apart from the others, that he had great faith in that region, and was willing to invest a reasonable amount of money in any prospect that gave him sufficient encouragement.
he recalled how the attempt had been made to dupe him at old bob’s diggings a short distance below, and said that he had felt so well satisfied that nothing this creek could show was good, that he had resolved never to look at any property on its banks again.
at the same time, the behavior of mr. brehm, during the examination of bob’s prospect-hole to which he had just alluded, was so upright and intelligent, that when he heard{196} that something different had been discovered on panther creek, and by whom, he had readily consented to come and see it. “now i want to see all you have to show me; and if you have anything good, i’ve no doubt we can make some sort of a bargain. but i don’t profess to understand these things as well as some, and at any rate two heads are better than one. ‘in a multitude of counsellors there is wisdom,’ the wise man says. therefore i shall ask you to let my superintendent go in with us.”
this long speech was not in the least tiresome to its hearers, as you may well believe; indeed they took a great liking to mr. anderson’s frank, bluff, and business-like manner, which inspired both respect and confidence.
at once, therefore, the little lamps were lighted, old canvas coats were lent to the visitors, and the four started into the last chance tunnel, max leading the way, and len bringing up the rear.
sandy remained at the cabin, partly because{197} he felt himself an outside factor, and partly to bear company with buckeye jim, morris, and the deputy sheriff, who were guarding the prisoner, and chatting over rocky mountain adventures in a way very entertaining to the scotchman.
apologies for the unworkman-like condition of the mine were unnecessary, since everybody knew the history of the undertaking, so that nothing was said until the inner chamber had been reached, at the crosscut, the shape and situation of which was first explained to the visitors.
“is your title unquestionable?” asked mr. anderson.
“yes; we had the papers examined by a lawyer, and the transfer properly recorded. there is no flaw, that we can discover.”
“where does this water come from?”
“mainly from a surface seam. i think it could be drained off above ground by a little engineering, and thus stopped entirely without much expense.”{198}
while this colloquy was in progress, the superintendent had taken up a pick and chipped off some pieces of rock from the roof and sides of the vein, at which he was looking very sharply under the flame of his smoky lamp. lennox noticed with a thrill of gratification how his expert eye, with the instinctive perception acquired by a long training, threw away what they had learned was worthless rock, while the brown stuff, which they had proved to be valuable, was selected for closer examination.
“this is queer-looking stuff,” he remarked, “i never came across anything just like it. what do you take it to be, mr. brehm?”
“that, sir,” max replied, with a bit of tremor in his voice, for this was the first announcement, “that, sir, i suppose to be a telluride of gold, carrying about twenty-eight ounces to the ton.”
“great scott! that’s the best show of gold in these parts! and this black grit must be a lead-carbonate!”{199}
“so we are told by denver assayers. they pronounce it a soft carbonate, rich in lead and iron, and worth—here’s the letter—about one hundred and twenty dollars to the ton.”
both mr. anderson and the superintendent were vastly interested by this information, which evidently they accepted as true. the latter gentleman read aloud the assayer’s statement of his analysis of the ore, and pointed out that it gave very little black-jack, antimony, etc., which indicated that the ore would be easy to smelt, a most important consideration in estimating its value.
“is the whole vein, so far as you have gone, like this?” mr. anderson asked, as he held up his light, and scrutinized the walls and roof of the small chamber.
“no; there is not much at the very entrance, though, after we learned to recognize them, we could find traces of both the carbonate and telluride clear to the door-way, but we saw much more in the interior, and argued that the deeper we went the richer the mine{200} would grow, which has proved true up to the present time. if it hadn’t been for those pesky jumpers, we should have gone several yards deeper.”
“the vein doesn’t seem to be uniformly composed of the ore minerals.”
“no, it has been growing very strange in its distribution of late, a fact we began to notice when we were about two-thirds of the way to this point. the lode gradually became filled with more or less globular cavities, which steadily increased in size. the wall of each of these cavities is formed almost wholly of the telluride, and the spaces between are pretty nearly dead rock. inside, whenever they are small,—there are some little ones in the roof, just over your head, which show it well,—they are quite filled with nearly solid carbonate; but when they are larger—the last one we struck, you can see a remnant of it in the breast, was as big as a barrel—they are only partly full, and the ore of the interior soft and crumbling.”{201}
“they are like miniature caves or monstrous geodes,” said mr. anderson.
“yes,” len put in—he had been quiet as long as he could stand it, “and sometimes we are warned of what is ahead by the hollow sound.”
“maybe we can find one now, to show you,” max suggested; and, taking a pick, he moved toward the extremity of the tunnel, whither the rest followed him.
tapping here and there the breast of rock forming the head of the tunnel, max presently detected near the floor a peculiar echo; all listened, and agreed that this sound denoted a hollow.
“i’m not very sure, but i’ll try it,” he said, and slipping aside swung back his sturdy arms preparatory to delivering a tremendous stroke.
down came the pick, crashed through a shell of rock, and sank out of sight, except a few inches of handle.
“you’ve hit it, sure!” exclaimed mr.{202} anderson. “make the hole a little bigger, so that we can see in.”
max did so, knocking off the edges until len could put head and arms in, whereupon he reported that he could neither touch nor see the further side.
drawing back, the hole was again enlarged, and max tossed in a stone, which was heard to roll downward a long distance.
the whole party was now excited in no small degree. taking the superintendent’s candle in addition to his own, mr. anderson crept inside the aperture, cautiously descended a short incline, closely followed by the others, and soon reached a level bottom. the adventurers now found themselves in a large natural chamber—the interior, in fact, of an extensive cavity like those of a lesser size which have been described. the flickering rays of their lamps and candles let them see that overhead was a dome-like ceiling, seamed with bright streaks of galena, and interspersed, in a sort of rude fresco, with
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the fairy cave.
silver caves, page 202.
{203}
brown carbonates of lead, greenish chlorides of silver and pure white talc. at several points in this remarkable chamber small openings appeared, apparently leading to similar chambers beyond and above.
choosing one of these apertures opposite the breach by which they had entered, they enlarged it somewhat, until one by one they could squeeze through into a natural tunnel which ran for a hundred feet or more on an upward slant. following it slowly, they clambered over boulders of galena, cubic crystals of lead, almost always accompanied by silver, and left the first of human footprints upon mounds of soft gray carbonates. here, as before, the walls and roof showed themselves to be solid masses of chloride and carbonate ores of silver, through which small deposits of the telluride of gold were lying like plums in a pudding.
returning to the starting-point the explorers broke down another doorway, and passing through a second natural tunnel a{204} distance of about forty feet, found indications of other chambers and passages beyond.
“it would seem,” cried mr. anderson, who was now more astonished than were our young friends, the fortunate owners;—“it would seem as though nature had selected choice treasures from her great storehouses, and had placed them in these chambers and made them beautiful with glittering crystals, wrought in the heart of these remote mountains, on purpose to lure men to still greater exertions and richer rewards of labor and perseverance.”
“she’s had to wait a good while for visitors to her show,” len remarked.
“yes,” mr. anderson replied, “but that is no matter. nature is never in a hurry. she can afford to be patient and wait, and let things move slowly. with her ’a thousand years is but a day.’ she has had, and will have, all the time there is.”
“for that matter,” max remarked, catching up the strain, “what is this little bit of beauty{205} and interest, curious as it is, beside the splendid shows nature arranges for us, with never wearying change, from morning till night.”
“and from night till morning,” added the superintendent, remembering the brilliant heavens spread over the clean-aired mountains.
“nevertheless, for our purposes,” said mr. anderson, heartily, “this does very well indeed, and i compliment you most sincerely on your success.”
then they made their way out and told their wonderful tale. the storm had wholly cleared from the mountains, and the sun was shining brilliantly, robing the magnificent landscape, softened by autumn haze, in its most glorious garb.
buckeye jim and morris were hearty in their congratulations, and began to build enthusiastic hopes that their own worthless aurora might be pushed into a similar group of silver-caves. but that lode lay on the{206} wrong side of the porphyry partition, and i regret to say that the money they afterwards spent in trying the experiment was wholly wasted.
the deputy sheriff from denver was not greatly moved; said he had heard tall stories before; knew how to boom a prospect-hole as well as the next man, and altogether made himself disagreeable by his air of unbelief and his sneering tone. it is wise, no doubt, to be cautious, but it is very unfortunate for a man, and especially for a young man, to get into such a state of mind that no statement is to be credited, nothing considered genuine, and no man accepted as honest and well-meaning.
as for the prisoners, they were sullen, irritated by the good fortune of those whom they had intended to ruin, and spent their time in planning vengeance upon old bob for misleading them and getting them into a scrape from which they could see no escape,—since, in fact, there was none.
“fools aye see ither folk’s faults, and forget their ain,” sandy informed them when he had become disgusted with their profane growling and threats.
of all the company in the cabin, indeed, sandy mckinnon, naturally, was the one most deeply interested in this marvelous find, which, for him, meant a sudden and unhoped-for good fortune out of his brief essay in america.
“hech, man,” he cried out, “it’s jest the old days of alladdin an’ his lamp—the open-sesame business, ye mind. why, the riches o’ it must be untold!”
