Evening star., 1901-05-25

| manded, flush showing under the tan of
! his cheeks.
Nothing at ALL" I answered. What 1
want to impress upon you is this, that
Manuel isn't an enemy to be despised Look
out for him, Healy. He has considerable
| influence over the other Mexicans, and they
may. be heard from, you know"
mo fear Of that. / have the whole pack
completely cowed. How much amalgam
Will there be- Leff1ngwell?'
about twenty pounds
WIN you retort 1t tonight?'
l nodded.
I've taken advantage Of this cleanup
to send to Phoenix for some new shoes
and dies. AS they won't get here until
nearly morning, and it would be rather
lonely for you in the mill all by yourself,
I'll come down tonight and lend hand
and keep you company.
With that he went away and I saw him
no more until after supper when / was
building my furnace fire to do the retort-
ing.
Getting bullion from the amalgam taken
off the mill plates is a much easier task
than treating the shines Of the cyanide
process but the entire modus operandi of
the latter is far and away the more inter-
esting. After being stamped to powder
in the battery boxes much of the gold in
the ore is wrought SO fine that 1t fails to
''catch" on the quicksilver of the plates so
IL runs over with the worthless matter and
is conducted by troughs to the taiings
pile. When thoroughly dry the tailings are
shOveled into watts, and from a storage
tank, set high above, the cyanide solution
is forced by natural pressure up through
the bottoms of the watts. percoating
through the powdered ore and absorbing
the precious particles Of yellow metal.
Laden with it's wealth, the stream Of
cyanide falls by gravity through iron pipes
into a long box, where it precipitates the
gold upon shavings of zinc Thereupon
the fluid which has wrought this wonder
work drops into an iron sump tank and is
pumped back into the solution chamber,
where it's weakness is ascertained and
| enough cyanide added to bring the solution
up to standard strength. Then the work is
again and again repeated. In all metal
| lurgy there is no process more beautiful
! than this and it formed the theme of many
| conversations between Miss Grafton and
myself. She was not only conversant with
! every branch Of the subject and had the
minutiae Of the process at her finger ends,
! but she was likewise able to discourse
upon it most charmingly.
Twenty pounds Of amalgam made it nee
essary for me to use my largest retort
and when I had everything ready Healy
helped lift it into the furnace, cover
| it completely with the glowing charcoal
and adjust the tube in pail of water
A strange quiet reigned about the mill
that evening-almost foreboding quiet
| and more than once caught myself cast
Ing uneasy ganineS ha h5o the dark corners
| Of a mile away and the night watchman
| was not to go on duty until we left the
! mill, so the super and We're quite alone
alone with a thousand dollars worth of
gold throwing off its quicksilver in the fur
| mace A sense Of responsibility began sud
denly to fret at my nerves and a pre-
| monition of impending evil was not long
| in manifesting itselfi l looked at ueaIy
He was sitting on the floor before the fur
| mace, his knees drawn up to his chin and
his hands clasped around them. He was
| thoughtful and splash Of freight fell
rudduy on his strong face.
| You're excellent company, Healy, must
say" I observed caustically, plunging my
| hand down into the water bucket and feel
| ing for the end OF the tube that connected
with the retort. why don't you say some
| thing?'
my thoughts were such good companions,
| Leffingwell, that l forgot all about you,''
said he, looking up with laugh. How s
| the retorting coming along?"
"The quick is all out in the pail" an
| swered, removing the cover OF the furnace
/ and showing an iron bar through a ring
in the top Of the retort. Bear a hand.
| will your
The next moment we had the whitehot
| iron receptacle upon a bed of cinders, and
knocked away the top so that the glow.
| ing balls of gold could roll out and cool
before being put away in the safe.
"And to think" murmured Healy, fasten-
| ing his eyes upon the cleaning yellow
| who would barter womans love for such
stuff as that! What sad commentary on
| human nature, Lefflngwell! With the love
of a woman-of one woman-any man
might be rich, even though he hadn't a
! dollar in the world.
| $50 you've found it out, have you," said
| I. We'll. It's true, and it's the love of
| one woman that makes a mans life worth
! living, that hallows his weary round Of