San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-22

their poor little home would be taken
from them.
When the sand was thoroughly wet
up Rodolfo began to give the bowl a
stronger motion sideways, till it seemed
as though he would spill the whole con-
tents. A lot of water and sand splashed
out from side to side, till presently there
was left but a handful in the bottom of
the bowl As he kept rotating it more
slowly and gently this drew out in
thin semicircle at the bottom of the
bowl, as far from the center as it could
get-a sandy procession in which the
usual parade order of the dignitaries
was quite reversed. For ahead of ali
was the worthless, unstable, reddish
sand; at its heels the black iron dust
which always is found in very rich com.
pany, and tagging at the rear of all came
few wee, yellow hecks no bigger than
a pinhead.
"Perow cried Rodolfo to his mother,
who was kneeling beside him, sit is very
rich! There will be cuatro reales fifty
cents from SO little dirtr'
Now he was holding the bowl so tilted
that the water had all run out; and the
procession" trying to follow it, was
headed down to the very edge, where
some Of the foremost sand fell off. Dip
ping his hand in the ola, Rodolfo
dropped very little water upon the
sand, to accelerate its exit Then he
tipped the bowl back to a level, and
poured in fresh dipper of water. A
little more gentle rotating and the pro-
cession was formed again, smaller than
before, but in the same order. Again
he ran off the foremost sand; and so,
over and over, working more daintily
all the time, till not bit of sand was
left, and but little of the iron dust
Only short black patch of the latter
remained, guarding the precious yellow
at its back-from the impalpable golden
flour" that was nearest, and even
mingled with it, back to fat little fakes
His mother had brought out small
bottle; and pushing out all the black dust
he could with deft forefnger, he tipped
the edge of the bowl to the bottles mouth,
coaxed the gold slowly into its new home.
"Que ricop cried Rodolfo, holding the
bottle away from him with a critical
closing of one eye. st is better pros.
pect than / have seen in the New Placers.
Such dirt ought to pay five pesos the day
or more, if one can find the paystreak.
And know just where dug the biggest
palmilla, for noticed it had so fat a
root, and there am going this very now.
Perchance thou wilt not have to sell the
serape, nanita-only wait me, till see il
we do not find much goldr'
For six days the old jacal saw very
little of Rodolfo. Exactly where he had
pried out the root of the big palmilla was
now a square hole nearly four feet across
and eighteen feet deep. 1t was on the
bank of the little dry stream bed at the
bottom of the big arroyo. At each side
of the shaft a stout young pinon trunk,
with fork Ut the top, was driven firmly
into the ground, and across these two
forks lay his primitive windlass-an
other pinon trunk with stout oblique |
branch left at one end for a crank. A
strong rope was on the windlass, and at |
its lower end dangled stout rung to be
passed through the handles of the curl |
GUS bucket gripsack of rawhide. Thus |
far he had worked alone, and very tire. |
some work it was, loosening with his |
pick that tumble of gravel and rocks
which the swift turbulence of summer |
torrents had packed and repacked in the
narrow gorge, and lifting it out by the
bucketful.
As the hole grew deeper he had to
swing down by his rope, fill the rawhide
sack with gravel, climb the rope again
hand over hand, and laboriously wind.
lass the heavy load to the surface and
empty it upon the dump. And now the
bottom of the shaft was at bedrock
the smoothish, sloping blanket of por.
phyry, coated with peculiar gray ce,
ment which underlies all that great
plateau. Soon he would know if all that
digging and hosting had been in vain.
As he started for home that evening his
tattered coat pulled heavy on blistered
hands-for in% he was carrying a load
of the very las. gravel, which he had
carefully brushed up from the bedrock.
There was no water in the arroyo, and
to pan his dirt he must carry it home
or bring water two miles to the shaft.
"Ya sa acabol" (now it's done) he
cried gayly to his mother, dropping the
heavy load from his aching shoulders.
"And tomorrow begin to drift for the
paystreak. But now will pan this dirt
before the sun goes and see if it be
good"
Five times he PANIED out the bowl
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