r," said Dick Scott, "we didn't think no such thing. We
on'y thought you was chuckin' away your money pernicious."

Grainger laughed so heartily that his hearers followed suit Then he went
on--

"No. I'm not throwing my money away, boys. I am going to _make_ money on
this field, and so are you. But there are not enough of us. We want more
men--wages' men; and presently I'll explain _why_ we shall want them.
But first of all, let me show you what I obtained the other day out of
between 200 and 250 lbs. weight of those tailings."

He rose, went into the second room, and returned with a small enamelled
dish, and placed it upon the table. The miners rose and gathered round,
and saw lying on the bottom about an ounce and a quarter of fine powdery
gold.

"Holy Moses!" cried one of them, as he drew his forefinger through the
bright, yellow dust, "there's more than an ounce there."

"There is," affirmed Grainger: "there are twenty-five pennyweights, and
all that came out of not more than 250 lbs. of tailings!"

The men looked at each other with eyes sparkling with excitement,
and then Grainger poured the gold out upon a clean plate for closer
examination.

"Why," exclaimed Scott, "that means those tailings would go ten ounces
to the ton!"

"Just so," said Grainger, "but we can't get those ten ounces out of them
by ordinary means, though with new screens, new tables and blankets I
am pretty sure we can get four ounces to the ton. But we want the ten,
don't we?"

"You bet," was the unanimous response.

"Well, I'll guarantee that we shall get eight ounces at least. But first
of all I'll tell you how I got the result. You can try some of the stuff
in the morning, and you will find that those tailings will pan out about
eight or ten ounces to the ton."

"But acid is mighty dear stuff," said Scott.

"Just so, but it is very good as a test, and of course we are not
such duffers as to try to treat more than a couple of thousand tons of
tailings with acid. We'd die of old age before we finished. Now, I'll
get on and tell you what I do propose. You remember that I said I had
seen tailings treated in Victoria without roasting. Well, we could do
that now, though we should only get half the gold and lose the other
half in the sludge pits. Now, as I told you, I have about four hundred
pounds' worth of alluvial gold, which I brought with me from the north,
and which I can sell to any bank in the Bay. I intended when I bought
t