ramp had been carefully
thought out. The opportunity was made and it was for them to use it.
He drew a long breath, conscious that here was the moment which comes
but seldom in the lives of men. It was only five years ago that,
practically penniless, he had overheard a conversation in a train.

"Ore?" he said coolly without changing a muscle. "Why, you're sitting
on five million tons of the best ore I ever saw."

A blue jay lit on a branch over his head and looked impudently down.
No one spoke. Presently Wimperley scratched at the moss with his heel,
bared a strip of rock and stared at it as though he had hurt it.
Stoughton rolled over and shot side glances at Clark, whose eyes were
fixed on the jagged horizon.

"What?" whispered Riggs.

"The discovery was made some days ago by one of our own prospectors,
but I could not speak definitely until the various analyses were
completed. It is excellent ore and will smelt well. There is
limestone within two miles of the works. The coke, of course, will
have to be brought up.'"

"I'll be damned!" murmured Stoughton in a voice husky with reverence.

The others spoke not at all, but peered blinkingly at Clark as though
his recumbent body were hiding more wonders from them. Presently
Wimperley, who knew something of ore, bent stiffly forward, picked up a
fragment of rock and, after a long scrutiny, nodded slowly.

"This exposure is about half a mile long," said the quiet voice. "It
crops out there and there," he pointed to neighboring ridges, "and
there's more beyond that, if you'd care to walk over."

But no one cared. The Philadelphians were too lost in fatigue and
astonishment. After a little Riggs commandeered the rest and the four
began to roll back great blankets of moss, just as Fisette had done the
week before, and everywhere beneath lay iron ore. Clark watched them
with a suggestive smile till, after a little, Birch sat down panting,
his hands stained with soil.

"Well?" he demanded, "how about it?"

"It was something more than three years ago that the first prospector
went in," commenced Clark thoughtfully, "and I reported at the time
that it was definitely stated by those who ought to know that there was
no iron in the country. Geological maps showed the same thing, but it
struck me there was too much guess work about them, so we began to make
maps of our own. A month ago we got into iron formation and soon after
came the discovery. I felt all