Little Falls herald. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1889-1950, 1918-02-01
The
Refractory
OreQaiirn
BY Oliver Harper

S: By Oliver Harper $
(Copys.xht, 1877. Western Newspaper Union. }
! "What is to be done with that pre-.
lcious pair OF fools up there is what
can't figure out" said Jim Barker
blowing a cloud of smoke from his
'stubby pipe.
1--WE just can't do anything" replied
Joe Timmins, sending blue cloud over
to meet and mingle with that of Jim.
"We've tried to tell them that they're
foolish, but you can't git anything into
that woman's head, except that we are
all set of d|scoundrels, and try
ing to chisel them out of a rich mine.
/ am plumb outdone with them, and yet
we can't let them 60 on thisaway. To-
morrow will be New Years, and there
they are up there working like he
roes at something that will never pay.
wish to goodness some Of them smart
Alexis in the big colleges would find
some way of dealing with refractory
ore. Who in Halifax sent 'em up there,
anyhow"
"Oh, some one in Havilah. You see,
the chap, he's a Hunger. Got sick in
some of them high skyscrapers in New
York, and they sent him and that slip
OF a gal out here to rough it In the
mines, hoping that he'd get we'll"
"Well, he's in pretty fair health just
now, as you'd know If you seen him
at work. But, they've sunk every dol
lar they had in that d old Key
stone. She thought the stones were
go pretty! And, so they are, all green
as emeralds, and full Of gold, that you
could cut out with pocket knife,
but which will never pan out dollar
ito the hundred TONS"
II told him and her, when they took
out the claim papers that it was bad
ore, but they knew so much better
than I did that 1 finally let them go
ahead. Well, they have their twenty
stamp mill up and the first cleanup
will be made tomorrow. They are a
pair of fools, but they are such en-
gaging fools-what will they do when
they find out?" said the man who
kept the saloon.
At this moment man who worked
for Ed. Ingram, the 'fool," came down
the trail from the Keystone mine.
"Say, is they doctor in this here
place? If they is, he Is wanted up to
the Keystone mighty quick. And,
where's Annette? She's wanted, too"
"Who's hurt7 What's the matter,
anyway" asked Jim.
Matter? Matter enough, I should
say. Here is this gal away from home
and folks. She's been workin' herself
to death to help her fool husband spend
money on that rotten old refractory
ore mine. They clean up tomorrow
after the first nine weeks run, and
she's been bakin' all day to have q
New Years festival for the boys-and
by Gosh, there won't be six ounces,
and now, now-well."
"Well-what?" asked the twenty
men crowding around him.
"Well:" Knocked he, "what'd you ex-
pect? She's a-needin' her mother just
now-that's what"
II be mud'," said the old Indian
woman who had come and the three
fastened up the trail.
The men looked at each other blank
~. They knew that this young couple
had gone into the mountain hoping
that the husband would grow strong.
He did, but when Mary had discov-
cred the lead they forgot all but that.
Mary knew gold when she saw it and
here 1t was, lying in the hard quartz,
among the vivid green's of the arsenical
deposit, bright and pure. She had
found a rich mine! Together they
traced the outcroppings, and saw that
the gold-bearing ledge was virtually
endless, and SO placed that tunneling
would not be necessary. They took
some of the richest specimens Of their
rock and went down to Havilah, to
record their claim. Just for form they
went to an assay office. The assayer
looked at the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES peci-
mems and then stammered and turned
red. Mary and Ed were so young
and so enthusiastic it were ruthless
to destroy their joy. Mary watched
him suspiciously. Why was he so agi-
tated?
"Ah-er-have you ever heard of
refractory ore?" he asked. "There are
many kinds Of gold-bearing quartz, but
some of it cannot be worked on &C.
count of the arsenic. And, am afraid
this is that kind of rock. It looks So"
"But look at the gold," said Mary,
her eyes flashing, and her cheeks red
~ know-I know, but it would cost
much more than it would bring to try
to work your claim. Where is your
claim?"
The two amateur miners looked at
each other with quick suspicion, and
Mother replied. The poor assayer
,,-nDto1 RI warn thnr7 h11t thnv xyorc