unbroken snow drifts, and it was night when he
returned, weary, footsore and angry.

I can see him yet, tears trickling down his honest face, as he tried
to tell something about Amos. He spoke of "the scamp, the villain, and
robber," and then choked with rage. Like all Scotchmen, the more he
thought of the wrong done him, the angrier he became; he would be more
angry tomorrow and it would be the day after that his anger would
reach the climax, and begin to subside. This was not a peculiarity of
Buchan. It is a characteristic of the Scotch.

We made him a cup of coffee and seated him comfortably before the
fire. When he calmed down somewhat, he explained.

"The first thing I did the next morning after reaching Saguache, was
to eat breakfast, and then I took the samples of ore to Amos' assay
office. He was garrulous as usual, and said to come in two hours and
he would have the certificate of the assay ready for me. When I again
called he handed me the certificate and I paid him the usual two
dollars and fifty cents. It showed nine dollars and ninety cents to
the ton. The usual increase of ten per cent. over the last assay.

"I crossed over to the postoffice, and while waiting for my mail, I
noticed the snow standing ten inches high on the cap of the flue of
Amos' assay furnace. I thought, how in the deuce did he assay our ore
without melting the snow on the cap of the flue? The more I thought
about it the more I was mystified. I went across to his office and
said, 'Amos, I suppose you gave us the usual fire test on this ore?'
'Yep,' he answered. 'Then tell me,' I cried, 'how in the devil did you
make the fire test without melting the snow off the cap of your
furnace flue?' 'Too cold to melt,' he replied.

"Then I rushed past him into the back room. The furnace was cold and
the frost had gathered on the iron door. I don't suppose there had
been a fire in it for a week. I took Amos by the whiskers and told him
to own up that he had not made a fire test of our ore. Then he
acknowledged that he had been guessing at it all along."

"You don't mean there is a doubt about us having pay rock?" we yelled
in a chorus.

"All kinds of doubt," said Buchan. "I am told there is a suspicion
that Amos gives everybody an assay showing values, where there are no
values--this for the purpose of keeping up work in the district--and
to those who have found values, he gives them an assay showing
nothing. At the same time he gives Rayde