The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-10-06
"Don d. Sabatico! The stone is gold!"

of mingled pale and metallic appearance, and
the metallic place, were not sulphates, as>I
thought at first, but almost pure gold.
At this intelligence my comrades went almost
wild. They were poor beasts and knew not
the value of gems, but once or twice in their
lives bad they touched louis and at the men,
ton OF gold their animal greeds burnt in their
eyes till our little cloister seemed scooped out
OF delirious dream, and for an instant /
pressed my head in my hands to know if I
were poor Pierro Tagliare indeed, or the Prince
of Golconda.
My struggle indeed ceased at hard hoarse
word from Crispino Bacco:
These are mine. I am the discoverer of
them all because head the gang. Do none
OF you take up one stone!
Hooked at him and shuddered. His face
was like wild beasts; his fingers were
crooked hard, like cat when she Is angry.
He did not weep nor embrace Us at this gen.
eral good fortune, but regarded us as enemies
contesting his spoil.
"Caspiao! said, "are you mada" five
are to possess this wealth it must be in CON-
mon, and the secret must be kept amongst Us,
otherwise the crown will claim every ounce of
gold"
at is all mine!n he howled, ~ am its dis.
coverer. Stand off"
l saw the gathering fury on the faces of our
two assistants. They muttered. and their brows
worked and blackened, and together they
rushed upon Bacco Before I could stir or
speak he lay upon the rock, and they had
pounded in his skull with the very nuggets
of quartz which contained the veins of gold.
When their fury abated and the murder had
been done, they stopped and breathed hard
The sight of blood sobered them; they turned
upon me.
You will betray Us, Beccamorta 2"
saw that the crime they had done would
engulf us all unless l could bring my supe-
rior intelligence to bear upon these poor
wretches.
Either we must all die but one, Felice,
Gaspare," I said, land he live q fugitive or be
hung; or we must agree to share this secret
and be faithful to each other. Take up the
body of Bacco and run it to the mouth of the
gallery; all say that the mine exploded pre-
maturely and killed him and then return to
mel"
l set Pafusto and all its pistons to work i'm
mediately, that the directory might not suspect
anything, and before the two men returned
the pertorators were gashing the softer slate
and Shale at the rate OF metre an hour. Ev-
cry clip of the piston rods disengaged some
new fragment, all beautiful with crystals, and
giving back to the iron thud the keen ring of
precious metals. Chrysobery lay imbedded in
the coarse granite at the bottom. The black
and brown Savoyard diamonds which had been
found in past years in the beds of the torrents,
were here, of a pale blue lustre, rarer than I
had ever read OF them, and disengaged one
fruticOse cluster, OF the purest water, contain.
ing seventeen. The gold quartz was also varied
by the glimmer of platinum, and shower
of garnets fell thrice, sOile of them so large
that they could not lie in the palm of my
hand.
l do not forget that to all this I am certify
ing under oath, and need not specify when
the whole truth of what disclose will be
known tomorrow to the crown, if it be not
patent already. 1t is enough to add that, in
the thirty or forty miles where my drills
broke down this precious deposit in the noun
tain, beheld and handled more wealth than
all the cloisters of Dresden hold, or the great
mogul guards In his treasures. The gems
that fell were larger than all precedents ad-
mitted, and of wOndrOus crystaliZation. The
topaz, beryl, tourmaline, ryacO litas, spinelle,
and corundum, were often in the same frag-
ment, and there together as if hidden there
years before. Sapphires, a little dull by tee
earths to which they were attached, and weigh
ing three hundred carets, were common as
pebbles around me: I filed my pockets with
the rarest, and duding Others more precious
still, threw them all away asd gathered and
gathered, till at last my head began TO reel
with possession. and l sat upon the ground
beneath my engines and laughed like one wit
less. l did not believe one winkful of light
that shone upon me from the lamps; the cold
feel of diamond in my grasp enrsged me, be-
cause l believed it deception of the devil,
and / threw it away with curse. spurned
the quartz with my feet, as If it were intangi-
BILE, and held to the light q palm, filed with
all lustres Of worth-metallic, adamantine, vi
treous, resinous, silky, pearly, some phospho.
resent, some full of strange polarization,
composed with shifting pleochroisms, and
crystalized from simple cubes to innumerable
facts whereto the MISREPRESENTATION was .
plane alone; but these things were too mani
fest for doubt. consider that, because this
phase of nature was rare, and never until DOW
disclosed to man, it need not therefore be i'm
possible; for in the endless labrstory of ma
ture my race had until now penetrated only
the po,t tai, while was sitting in the heart OF
the Alps, mile from any surface, above or
behind. l thought with keen disappOint-
ment that perhaps this discovery at my feet was
only the outer vestibule of what we should
disclose further on, where gems might be en-
countered which would make these present
precious crystals valueless by their higher
comparison, and revolutioniae the riches OF
the world
An interval of calm Renaissance followed.
Discoveries as unexpected had been already
made; 140 years before q chance adventurer
had tapped the diamond quarries of Brazil, and
found at the same touch deposits of gold, of
silver of platinum, with all the gems which
encountered here. In India, subsequently, the
whole coast of the Indian Ocean was found to
be rich in similar treasures ; and so recently as
1885, humboldt had gathered diamonds on
banks OF the Adolfskoi, aud from its long allu-
vium OF gold dust, had paid the debts of the
Gar.
was aroused from my reverie by the com.
ing of my companions. They had been drink
ing, and their feet were unsteady their heads
wagged; they Tere already testifying how ill
prosperity consorts with ignorance.
In all this am rendering myself liable to the
penalty of the law but the crimes that ad
nit will not, at least, lose my life. am &C.
cused of murder. To escape its penalty, under
the pressure of strong circumstantial evidence.
sisted in the work of destruction to the frame