The 'Yellow Metal.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 31, 6 October 1911, Page 11

The 'Yellow Metal.

From " Burning Daylight," HalfAvay down the trail he came upon the slide. It was a'small affair, only a feAV tons of earth and crumbling rock, but, starting from fifty feet above, it had struck the waterpipe Avith force sufficient to break it at a connection. Before proceeding to work, he glanced up the path of the slide, and he glanced Avith the eye of the earth-trained miner. And he saw Avhat made his eyes startle and cease for the moment from questing further. "Hello," he communed aloud; "look Avho's here!" ...... His glance moved on up the steep broken surface, and across it from side to side. Here and there, in places, small tAvisted manzanitas were rooted precariously, but in the main, "save fox weeds and grass, that portion of tfce canon Avaß bare. There Avere signs of a surface that had shifted often as the rains poured a Aoav of rich eroded soil from above tlie lip of the canon. "A true fissure vein, or I never saAv one," he proclaimed softly. And as the old hunting instincts had ■ aroused that day in the Avolf-dog, so in him recrudesced all the old hot desire of gold-hunting. Dropping the hammer and pipe Avrench, but retaining pick and shovel, he climbed up the slide to where a vague line of out-jutting, but mostly soil-covered rock could be seen. It: was all but indiscernible, but his practised eye had sketched the hidden formation Avhich it signified. Here and there along this wall of the vein he attacked the crumbling rock Avith the pick and shovelled the encumbering soil away. Several times he examined this rock. So soft Avas' some of it that he could break it in his fingers. Shifting a dozen feet higher -ita, he again attacked Avith pick arid shovel. And this time, when he rubbed the soil from a chunk of rock and looked, he straightened up suddenly, gasping Avith delight.' And then, * like a deer at a drinking pool: in fear of its enemies, he flung a quick glance around to see if any eye Avere gazing upon him. He grinned at his oaa'ii foolishness and returned to his examination of the chunk. A slant of sunlight fell on it, and it was all a-glitter with tiny specks of "unmistakable free gold. "From the grass roots doAvn," he muttered, in an aAvestricken voice, as he sAvung his pick into the yielding surface. - • ... • . ■• \

He seemed to undergo a transformation. No quart of cocktails had ever put such a flame in his cheeks nor such a fire in his eyes. As he worked he was caught up in tlie. old passion that had ruled most of his life. A frenzy Seized him that markedly ~- increased from moment to moment. He Avorked like a -madman, till he panted from-his exertions and the siyeat dripped from his face to the ground. He quested across the face of the slide to the opposite Avail of the vein and back again. And midAvay he dug down through the red volcanic earth , that- had washed from the disintegrating hill .above, until he covered, quartz, rotten quartz, that broke and crumbled in his hands and sboAved to be aQive-with free gold.

Sometimes he, started,small slides of earth that covered up ,his work. and compelled him to dig again. Once he swept fifty feet down the canon side, but he floundered and scrambled up

The Gold-Digger's Lurje.'.as Delineated by Jack London. . -

London's latest noA'el. Again without pausing for breath. He hit upon quartz that was so rotteji that it Avas almost like clay, and hereV .the gold Avas richer than ever. It was . a veritable treasure chamber. For a hundred feet up and down he traced the Avails of the vein. He even climbed over the canon lip to look along the brow of the hill for signs of thss, outcrop. But that could wait, and he hurried back to his find. He toiled om in the same mad haste until exhaustion and . an, .intolerable ache, in his back compelled him to pause. Hhe straightened up Avith even. a richer piece.. of gold-laden: quartz. Stooping, the...sweat, from his. forehead; had fallen to the ground,:; it-now ran into his: eyes, blinding him. He Aviped ■ritjfrom him with the hack,of his hand, and returned to a scrutiny.of the gold. It Avould nm, thirty thousand to the ton, fifty;• thousand, anything—he knew that. And as he gazed upon the yellow lure, and panted for air, and wiped the sAveat aAvay, his quick vision leaped and set to work. He saAV the spurtrack that must run up from tlie valley and across the upland pastures, and he ran the grades and built the bridge that Avould span the canon, ..until, it Avas real before his eyes. Across tlie canon was the place for the mil?,' and there .he erected it, and he erected. also the endless chain of buckets, suspended from a cable and operated by gravity, that Avould carry the ore across the canon to the quartz-crusher. Likewise, the whole mine greA\;. before hini : .mid beneath him—tunnels, shafts, ancfc ..galleries, and hoisting plants. Tho blasts of the miners Avere in his ears, and from across the canon he could hear, the roar of the stamps. The liandt that held the lump of quartz was trembling, d,nd there Avas a tired, nervous palpitation apparently in the pit of his stomach. It came to him abruptly that AA'hat he ay anted Avas a drink—whisky, cocktails, anything—-a drink. And even then, Avith this neAV hot yearning for the alcohol upon him, die heard, faint and far, drifting down the green abyss of the canon, Dede's yoice crying: :'..- ?:■•

"Here, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick! Here, chick, chick, chick!'-',.. . He dropped the piece of quartz, slid! doAvn the slide, and started 'up the trail, running heavily. . At the edgei of the clearing lie eased down and almost; crept to a point of vantage Avhence he could peer but, himself unseen. She was: feeding the chickens, to.ssi.ug to them handfuls of grain, and laugning at their antics.

The sight of her seemed to relfev«i the panic fear into which be had been flung, and he turned and ran back down the trail. Again he climbedt the. slide, but this time he climbed! higher,, carrying the. pick and shovel with him. And again he toiled frenziedly, but this time with a different purpose. He Avorked artfully, loosing' slide after slide of the red soil and sending it streaming down and covering up all he had uncovered, hiding from the light of day the treasure he had discovered. He, even went into! the woods and scooped" armfuls -of last year's fallen leaves, Avhich he scattered over the slide. But this he. gave up as a vain task, and he. sent more slides of soil doAA'n upon the scene of his labor, until no sign remained! of the out-jutting Avails of' the vein.,