Catoctin clarion., 1923-06-14
Author Of
A Man To His Nate, Etc
Illustrations by
Irwin Myers

mixture OF gold ana silver telluride
and it's also called tellurium."
"I'm much obliged" said Sandy
"I've learned heap"
Westlake looked at him suspicious
ly, but Sandy's face was grave as that
Of the sphinx.
"The porphyry dykes here are in
syncline," the engineer went on. "They
dip toward each other from both sides
of the valley and form loops or folds.
If you imagine an onion sliced in half
you catch the idea. Call every other
layer porphyry. with rock and other
dirt between. The bottom of loop
may be deep down or 1t may be MISS
ing altogether, ground away when the
valley was gouged out by glacier.
There may be other loops beneath it.
Some portions of the loops come to the
surface on the hillside and you can
guess at their dip. But-the gamble
lies in this: The ones that are exposed
may or may not carry the gold-bearing
veins. This Casey, who made the
original strike, did he take out much?"
"As | understand It," replied Sandy,
"he hits the porphyry where It's shall
Ter, or worn off, like you said. An he
finds rich pay stuff right away, enough
to start the camp Quite few works
on that Outcrop an then it peters out.
Casey sabed a bit about synclines, I
reckon, fo' he kept faith in the camp,
on'y he realized it 'ud take a heap of
money to develop, meanln' to dig
through the porphyry, suppose. Now
they've found some mo- of that float
ore that the first crowd overlooked
Reckon that1l peter out too, after
while. But capital may come in on
this second staht. Some Eastern folk
were lookin' over the place q while
back"
Westlake halted and took small
steel hammer from his pocket with
which he struck off fragment Of rock
protruding from the ground. The
cleavage showed purple. He walked
slowly along for some fifty feet, kick
ing the soil with his foot, breaking off
other samples to which he put his
tongue.
taste good?" asked Sam.
mot bad If you're looking for min
eral. They've got distinct flavor all
their own, but I wetted them to show
the color up more plainly. Here Is
the out-crop of the syncline reef 1t
may carry gold and it may not, but it's
wide enough, it's near the surface and
it's as good place as any"
Sandy glancing across the valley to
where the engineer pointed, nodded his
head. Your judgment goes with
Casey's," he said. Right across from
here Is where he located his claims
take 1t. How about it, Mormon? Fits
the description to a T."
Sure does" assented Mormon. "If
you locate here, marm," he said to Mi
randa. "an' we-all make strike, we'll
be on the same vein, reckon"
ITS all Greek to me-" said the spin
ster. "How do we locate? I've come
this far, an I'll see the thing through
to some sort of finish. How many
claims can we take up an what's the
size Of 'em, Mr.. Westlake?"
The three partners left Miranda and
the engineer measuring off and setting
up their monuments at the corners Of
the claim. They started directly down
the side-hill, making for the valley, in
silence, like men with business ahead
of them that called for action rather
than words.
Here's the situation, as l sabe It,"
said Sandy. "Plimsol met up with
Pat Casey from time to time Molly
said so. There's other witnesses to
that. Plimsoll'll use some of them to
swear that he grubstaked Casey.
They'll be some of his own crowd. No
doubt Plimsoll got the location of the
claims from the old records an these
buckaroo pals Of his, who are roostin'
on said location, knew jest where to
60 an stahted out we'll In front with
their outfit l don't reckon we'll find
Plimsoll up there, though we amt
seen him so far this mo'nin', but I'll
bet our best bull ag'in chunk of dog
meat that they're on his pay roll"
"Shucks, it don't make no difference
whose pay roll they're on" said Nor
mon. "They're claim-jumpers an, like
you said, Sandy, a jump can be made
two ways. Let's 60 look 'em over"
The tent was pitched on the hillside
where the grade was too steep to per-
NIT of level ground enough for more
than the actual floor space. The tent
flaps were open and showed cots on
which blankets and clothing were
roughly spread. On two of these beds
men sprawled asleep. Five others
were seated on boxes about boulder
that looked like porphyry outcrop. Its
surface was fat enough to serve as a
table. The five were playing poker.
They were not a prepossesing lot, play
ing their game In silence, looking up
with scowl and movements toward
gun butts at the visitors.
"I've seen that tent afore," whis-
pered Sam to Sandy. The latter
nodded.
"Campin' out, gentsT' he asked
amiably.
emo ,ra oin,k rNbaco o1oip,a oro pro-