a sword,
because it was too soft. But in order to possess it, they was goin' to
take each other's lives. I, an' every other man in that town, had
thrown away or were throwin' away our souls for a thing which was
truly worthless.

"One night as I slept, I heard a voice callin' to me an' sayin', 'I
will make a man more precious than gold; even a man than the golden
wedge o' Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, an' the earth
shall remove out o' her place, in th' wrath o' the Lord o' Hosts, an'
in the day o' his fierce anger.' I heard that voice callin' to me not
once, but several times; an' when I woke up, an' walked through the
town, an' saw the men o' the Ophir preparin' to shoot down the men o'
the McCall, I could still hear the voice repeating, 'Even a man than
the golden wedge o' Ophir.'

"I went back to my shanty, an' found my Bible, an' read it many days,
never stirrin' out. I remember there was one passage that seemed to
accuse myself, an' to explain my own failure--'If I have made gold my
hope, or have said to the fine gold, "Thou art my confidence"; if I
rejoiced because my wealth was great, an' because mine hand had gotten
much; if I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walkin' in
brightness, an' my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath
kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the
judge, for I should have denied the God that is above.'

"I'd done all that. When I'd looked at the sun, I'd seen gold; when
I'd looked at the moon, I'd thought of silver; an' when I'd found both
the silver an' the gold in the Ophir, by Old Man Caldwell's Spring, my
mouth had kissed my own hand--an' not God's. An' what I'd done, every
one else was doin' in Virginia City; an' the Lord o' Hosts was angry,
an' that was why men were killin' one another. So, when I'd sat still
an' figured it all out, I said, 'God spoke to me because I'm the one
man on the Comstock who, when he's found gold, tries to bury it; an'
He spoke to me because He wants me to join with Him, an' help Him to
shake the heavens.' So out I walked, day after day, an' watched things
growin' from bad to worse; an' when I'd seen all I wanted, I come
home an' read my Bible--I knew that when God had need o' me He would
send His messenger.

"One night a miner come to my cabin, an' he said, 'Are you ready to
fight for the Fair-Haired Annie?'

"'I'm ready,' I said, 'but what's it all about?'

"'From a drift, a hundred feet down