_The Mystery of the Corner Stones._
Blakely, with the neighbors whom he employed, had completed the
excavations for the foundation walls and hauled the stone and mortar in
readiness for the masons. Four squares of granite had been drawn to The
Nole from the railroad station, and it was whispered among the workmen
that their employer would personally direct the setting of the corner
stones.
For several days, four of the master masons were engaged in carefully
cutting into the center of each of the squares of granite a bowl-shaped
cavity. Cameron, who had usually busied himself in other things which
kept him away from The Nole, came frequently now to inspect the
mysterious hollows being made in the granite boulders.
Soon the work of the masons was completed; then by the aid of crane
and derrick, they lowered into position the corner stones just as the
hour arrived for labor to cease. Cameron remained till the last man had
gone, examining the granite blocks, which he found were placed securely
in position, resting upon their cement foundation.
Next morning when the men came to resume work, they saw two others
there before them, Cameron and the tall, erect figure of Donald Ban,
his lawyer friend. The wonder at finding their employer so early at the
works was quickly followed by a second surprise, more startling than
the first. The cavities in the corner stones had been filled during the
night and a layer of cement covered the tops of the hollow openings and
was spread evenly with the surface of the granite rock.
“Lay the wall, men,” Cameron ordered in his calm, inflexible voice. “We
wish to remain here till the corner stones have been walled under.”
At noon hour the burden of the discussion among the assembled laborers
was to ascribe a reason for Cameron and the lawyer being among them in
the morning. In the midst of the debate, an exclamation of delight came
from one of their number, who had been apart from his fellows in the
basement, and he held up to view a ten-dollar gold piece he had found
in the dirt at his feet. Immediately a mad hunt was in progress around
the foundation walls, and particularly at the corner stones. Other gold
pieces were discovered, and among them a twenty-dollar gold piece was
taken from the miniature gold diggings.
When the excitement had abated somewhat, the foreman of the gang
of laborers, with a wise and important look on his face, the while
assuming a dramatic pose, pointed to the corner stones, and in tragic
tones, he said: “Boys, they are full of ’em!” and a quiet akin to that
resting over a haunted house fell upon the superstitious laborers.
The trick had worked well, for very soon the whole county would hear
that their mysterious neighbor had buried a fortune in gold in each
corner stone of the House of Cariboo. Cameron quickly heard of the
gold finds made up at the works at The Nole and he smiled with great
pleasure when he thought of the look of blank despair which would
come over the face of Nick Perkins, on his finding that the worthless
bits of scrap iron which filled the cavities of the four corners of
the mansion were all that represented the vast sums in gold that he
imagined reposed in the foundation walls of his purchase.
[Illustration]