He told how the
"tailings" at Mukton City had panned out 30 per cent, to the ton--
with two hundred thousand tons in the dump thrown away until the
new smelter was started and they could get rid of the sulphides;
of what Aetna Cobb's Crest had done and Beals Hollow and Morgan
Creek--all on the same ridge, and was about launching out on the
future value of Mukton Lode when Mason broke the silence by asking
if any one present had heard of a mine somewhere in Nevada which
an Englishman had bought and which had panned out $1,200 to the
ton the first week and not a cent to the square mile ever
afterward? The Chicago man was the most important mouse of the
lot, and the tone of his voice and his way of speaking seemed
fraught with a purpose.
Breen leaned forward in rapt attention, and even Hodges and
Portman (both of them were loaded to the scuppers with Mukton)
stopped talking.
"Slickest game I ever heard of," continued Mason. "Two men came
into town--two poor prospectors, remember--ran across the
Englishman at the hotel--told the story of their claim: "Take it
or leave it after you look it over," they said.
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