ions. The committee had seen with
their own eyes gold taken out of the sand and gravel to the amount of
twenty dollars in the two short hours of their examination. And the work
had been performed in the stupidest, clumsiest, yet PATIENT Chinese way.
What might not white men do with better appointed machinery! A syndicate
was at once formed. See Yup was offered twenty thousand dollars if
he would sell out and put the syndicate in possession of the claim
in twenty-four hours. The Chinaman received the offer stolidly. As he
seemed inclined to hesitate, I am grieved to say that it was intimated
to him that if he declined he might be subject to embarrassing and
expensive legal proceedings to prove his property, and that companies
would be formed to "prospect" the ground on either side of his heap of
tailings. See Yup at last consented, with the proviso that the money
should be paid in gold into the hands of a Chinese agent in San
Francisco on the day of the delivery of the claim. The syndicate made
no opposition to this characteristic precaution of the Chinaman. It
was like them not to travel with money, and the implied uncomplimentary
suspicion of danger from the community was overlooked. See Yup departed
the day that the syndicate took possession. He came to see me before he
went. I congratulated him upon his good fortune; at the same time, I was
embarrassed by the conviction that he was unfairly forced into a sale of
his property at a figure far below its real value.

I think differently now.

At the end of the week it was said that the new company cleared up
about three hundred dollars. This was not so much as the community
had expected, but the syndicate was apparently satisfied, and the new
machinery was put up. At the end of the next week the syndicate were
silent as to their returns. One of them made a hurried visit to San
Francisco. It was said that he was unable to see either See Yup or the
agent to whom the money was paid. It was also noticed that there was no
Chinaman remaining in the settlement. Then the fatal secret was out.

The heap of tailings had probably never yielded the See Yup company more
than twenty dollars a week, the ordinary wage of such a company. See Yup
had conceived the brilliant idea of "booming" it on a borrowed capital
of five hundred dollars in gold-dust, which he OPENLY transmitted by
express to his confederate and creditor in San Francisco, who in turn
SECRETLY sent it back to See Yup b