THE SMUGGLERS’ CACHE IS FOUND
“S’pose you’re goin’ to put in a ’rastra?”
Ben turned and saw the man who had signed as a witness to the agreement.
“How do you do, Mr. Mundon?” he replied. “Yes, I think it will need an
arastra to crush the bricks.” His grave face showed that already the
cares of the undertaking were preying upon him.
“Don’t you mind the sneers and laughs of anybody,” the man said, with
a sturdy independence that Ben liked. “You’ve got a good proposition.
I’ve seen it done in Australia and a big pile cleaned up. They do it in
this country, too; and if this old chap you bought it from didn’t have
the mining fever so bad, he’d have done it years ago.”
“Evidently, it hasn’t occurred to him--or anybody,” said Ben.
“No; he’s too high to be a gleaner; wants real mines with drifts and
tunnels and mills to make his money melt. Now’f I was goin’ to do this
job, I’d put in a rough ’rastra--just a round bed of bricks, with a
two-foot wall ’round it.”
Ben did not reply, but he tried to look wise.
“That’s about your plan, I reckon?”
“Yes,” the boy said, “I’ve been thinking that an arastra, such as you
describe, would be the best thing.”
“Then you know all about one, of course?”
“No, I don’t; not by a long sight. I’ve seen one at work, but I didn’t
pay much attention to it--I was so young at the time.”
“O, in that case p’raps you’d like to have me describe one to you?”
“I would, indeed,” Ben fervently replied.
“Well, it’s just a round bed of bricks, with a two-foot wall ’round it.
I’d build that the first thing, if I was you, and put in the rubbish,
a little at a time. You want to put in some quicksilver with it. Then
I’d get a horse or a mule ter drag ’round a weight till the bricks and
mortar was well crushed.”
“Would you put the stuff in wet or dry?”
“Wet; and you want consid’able water, too. I tell you, it’s pretty to
see how the quicksilver’ll pick up ’most every mite of gold and hug to
the bottom with it!”
Ben’s eyes shone. “It must be!” he said. “And afterwards--what do you
do next? I’ve heard, but I’ve kind of forgotten just what comes next.”
“You throw off your coarse stuff from the top and strain the
quicksilver through buckskin.”
“Will it go through?”
“Will it? Well, you just ought ter see it come through the buckskin
till there’s little looking-glass tears all over it.”
“And after that?”
“Well, you finish it all off in a retort with a long tube. Build a fire
under it, and your quicksilver that’s left will ’vaporate, leavin’ the
gold behind.”
“I should think you’d lose a lot.”
“Of quicksilver, you mean? No, you don’t; ’cause you got ter keep the
tube cold and have the end of it sunk in water. Then the quicksilver’ll
condense again--so you won’t lose much of it. My! how them lumps of
gold will shine to you, eh?”
The boy’s eyes sparkled with delight, but he only nodded. He was
thinking very hard. Here, evidently, was just the man he needed. He
had seen an arastra at work in one of his father’s mines, but he knew
nothing about the practical details necessary to the construction
of one. Should he offer to employ this man, or should he offer him
a percentage of the profits? The latter proposition seemed the more
feasible; for, although it might cost him more in the end, he had no
ready money to pay out in wages. His mind was quickly made up.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Mr. Mundon. If you’ll help me with the
scheme,--I don’t mean just by talking, but with day’s work,--I’ll give
you one third of the net proceeds.”
“That’s a square offer,--seein’ as how I aint got nothin’ to put
in,--and I’ll take it. I’m out of a job just now, through waitin’ fur
a friend from Australia. I expect he’ll be here in a month more,--or
mebbe ’twill be several,--and then we’ll try Colorado together. I’d
reely like this work to fill up the time. There’s something sort of
venturesome ’bout it, that ’peals to me.”
“And I’m very glad to get you to help me,” Ben replied; “I’ve been
worrying a good deal since I bought it.”
“I’d thought of it a little, myself; and I come out here to-day ’cause
I kinder thought I’d find you a-hangin’ ’round somewheres near this
place.”
“Let’s go in and look over the ground,” said Ben.
They entered the inclosure and Mundon selected the most suitable place
for the arastra.
“The next question is, where am I to get the money for the things we
need?” Ben remarked. “I could get them on credit, I think, from an old
mining friend of my father’s; but I hate to go in debt, especially
on an uncertainty. I’ve been thinking about offering him a small
percentage in exchange for the materials. Then, it would be his own
risk whether he got his money or not.”
“Pshaw! You don’t want to give away any more percentages. A man’s got
to go in debt--more or less--in ’most every business. Besides, your
money’s right in sight, as it were.”
“No, it isn’t,” Ben stoutly replied. “That’s just the trouble; I think
it is, but I don’t know it. What right have I to promise to pay a man
out of my thinking?”
“There ain’t any other way. You’ve just got to do it; or borrow the
money from some one else, which amounts to the same thing.” He paused
for a reply, but as he noticed Ben’s hesitation he hastened to divert
him from his weighing of right and wrong. “I recollec’ a chimney on one
of Senator Fair’s mills up in Nevada, that yielded a pile of gold and
silver when ’twas broke up. Why, they found one solid lump of silver
half as big as my fist, in a crack in the masonry. You see, the gold
what stays in the furnaces, works right into the mortar and bricks in
a dust so fine you can’t see it. That’s why you need a ’rastra. But,
sometimes, fine particles of precip’tated silver’ll get blown into a
crack, until there’s a big lump formed.”
They peered up the gaping black mouth of the chimney. The furnaces had
been roughly torn out and large openings marked where they had joined
the chimney.
“Tell you what, Ben,” exclaimed Mundon, “s’pose I skin up and see what
I kin see?”
“No, let me go!” the boy eagerly replied.
He was a trifle ashamed of the jealousy he had already begun to feel
of this man’s wider experience. If there were lumps of gold and silver
glittering in his chimney, he wanted to be the first to see them.
“It’s a dirty job; but I’ve got on old clothes,” he said as he began to
climb up the black funnel.
Somehow, it was not nearly so sooty as he had expected to find it,
and the projecting corners of the bricks that afforded him a slight
foothold were quite light-colored.
He had climbed about ten feet when he saw a curious cavity in the side
of the chimney. A glitter in the dim light made his heart beat very
fast. Striking a taper match he was surprised to see a pile of small
tin boxes nearly filling a cavity in the side of the chimney. Looking
upward, he saw several similar breaks in the brickwork. He took one of
the boxes and climbed down.
“What have you got?” cried Mundon, with more surprise in his voice than
gave great credit to the tale he had just recounted.
They bent over the box, which emitted a sickishly sweet odor.
“Opium!” Mundon exclaimed.
For a moment they looked at each other in silent astonishment. Then
Ben grasped Mundon’s arm and dragged him to the gap in the side of the
building next the water.
“It’s been smuggled!” he cried. “And here’s where they’ve landed the
boats!” He pointed to the beach at their feet. The waves were still
playing with the dangling rope’s end.
“Was there any more?” questioned Mundon.
“Whole stacks of it.”
“Then you’ve got all the money you’re in need of, many times over.
Right in sight this time, sure!”
“How so?”
“Why, don’t you know ’t the law gives an informer thirty-three per
cent. of the value of the find? ’Course it does. All you’ve got to do
is to notify the Custom House men of the find ’n’ they’ll do the rest.”
“You think it’s been landed here, don’t you?” asked Ben.
“Sure. It’s ben landed from the China steamers, sure’s you’re born!
There couldn’t have ben a better place for ’em, if it had ben made on
purpose. Prob’ly they muffled their oars ’fore they landed.”
“It isn’t ten minutes’ row from the steamers,” said Ben.
“No. Like as not the butcher, or some one like that, after the ship’s
trade, is one of the gang. You’ve seen the flock of small boats that
follow like gulls after a big ocean steamer?”
Ben nodded. He was stupefied with surprise. His good fortune seemed too
good to be true.
“Tell you what, Ben, like as not those Custom House fellers’ll want to
leave the stuff here and set a watch ter ketch the gang.”
“I don’t care what they do--if I can get the money.”
“You can’t b’lieve it yet, eh? I tell you, you’re jest as sure of that
there money, as if you had it in your pocket this minute.”
“It’s like magic!”
“So ’tis, so ’tis--’tis the bag at the foot of a rainbow, sure enough.”
He pointed at the massive shaft of the chimney.
“Fairy gold!” Ben waved the little box at Mundon.
“That’s all right. You’ll find out that the gold you get for that’s
as good as twenty-dollar pieces are made of. Want me ter go down and
inform, or prefer ter do it yourself?”
“I’ll go.”
“Jest as you say. You’re boss here. You found it on your property, and
it’s proper you should go. I’ll stay and keep watch.”