t chipped a small fragment from the mass and
pounded it, and chipped another smaller piece and pounded that, and then
subjected it to acid, and then treated it to a salt bath which became
at once milky,--and at last produced a white something,--mirabile
dictu!--two cents' worth of silver!

Concho shouted with joy; the rest gazed at each other doubtingly and
distrustfully; companions in poverty, they began to diverge and suspect
each other in prosperity. Wiles's left eye glanced ironically from the
one to the other.

"Here is the hundred dollars, Don Jose," said Pedro, handing the gold to
Wiles with a decidedly brusque intimation that the services and presence
of a stranger were no longer required.

Wiles took the money with a gracious smile and a wink that sent Pedro's
heart into his boots, and was turning away, when a cry from Manuel
stopped him. "The pot,--the pot,--it has leaked! look! behold! see!"

He had been cleaning away the crumbled fragments of the furnace to get
ready for breakfast, and had disclosed a shining pool of QUICKSILVER!

Wiles started, cast a rapid glance around the group, saw in a flash that
the metal was unknown to them,--and then said quietly:

"It is not silver."

"Pardon, Senor, it is, and still molten." Wiles stooped and ran his
fingers through the shining metal.

"Mother of God,--what is it then?--magic?"

"No, only base metal." But here, Concho, emboldened by Wiles's
experiment, attempted to seize a handful of the glistening mass, that
instantly broke through his fingers in a thousand tiny spherules, and
even sent a few globules up his shirt sleeves, until he danced around in
mingled fear and childish pleasure.

"And it is not worth the taking?" queried Pedro of Wiles.

Wiles's right eye and bland face were turned toward the speaker, but
his malevolent left was glancing at the dull red-brown rock on the hill
side.

"No!"--and turning abruptly away, he proceeded to saddle his mule.

Manuel, Miguel, and Pedro, left to themselves, began talking earnestly
together, while Concho, now mindful of his crippled mule, made his way
back to the trail where he had left her. But she was no longer there.
Constant to her master through beatings and bullyings, she could not
stand incivility and inattention. There are certain qualities of the sex
that belong to all animated nature.

Inconsolable, footsore, and remorseful, Concho returned to the camp
and furnace, three miles across the rocky