Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19

you to pack oRiley to wherever the old fool
thinks he has lost his mine. I'll pay all ex-
penses, with a substantial bonus If June Is
convinced that Lost Dutchman's gold is nom
existent"
That is to say" said Steve Hunter you
want me to pretend to take up his proposition
myself?'
Exactly"
Steve Hunter looked Parker over slowly.
He couldn't make out exactly why the man in
front Of him reused him to instant resentment.
Waly Parker was tall, SLIM blond and clean
looking He had too small an eye, perhaps;
too long nose and too smooth way, but
none of these things account for the pleasure
with which Steve considered eliminating
Parker with one long wallop of his right hand.
He rolled cigarette.
mot at any price," he said at last
Parker shrugged "Oh, very well. I'll get
somebody else"
You think you will?" said Hunter.
He did not understand. then, what made
him do what he did next Certainly he had
no belief in Lost Dutchman's gold.
He walked to the blue car, where June was
talking eagerly to old ORiley.
Don't you fret, Miss ORiley" he heard
himself saying. III help you find your darned
old mine!"
"oh, good boyl" said June oRiley.
I ONG THUNDER MOUNTAIN turned out
l. to be old Dennis O'Riey's objective-a suf-
ficently inaccessible place in which to lose his
gold. Not until the eleventh day did it loom
over them.
This is it," Dennis oRiey exulted. this
is it,"
For an hour they pressed upward across the
deep-carved face of Long Thunder. And
there, incredibly, half an hour before dusk,
they came upon O'Riley's ancient stope.
One thing. at least. was decided for Steve
Hunter in that moment. If he had had any
sincerity of
girl or the old man in the quest for Lost Dutch
mans gold, it vanished here. No one could
doubt the reality of the tears which the old
man tried to hide they trickled into his
beard, nor the overwhelming emotion of June
as she Rugged her grandfather close.
The old man snatched pick pointed ham
mer from pack and rushed in the dark mouth
of the stope For 10 minutes, while Hunter I'M
saddled his pack animals and made camp, he
could hear the ring of steel on stone.
Then finally O'Riley came running toward
Hunter, both hands filled with fragments of
rock. He pressed ragged chunks into Steves
hands. Look at that! Look at that!"
Steve looked turning the fragments over.
He saw dark misunderstanding rock which he
could not Immediately name, marked with in
numerably small irregular inclusions Of
steely gray; and his spirit dropped heavily.
Now, Steve was no geologist. Yet he had
spent his life in these hills and he Ra,>T Gnsd
when he saw it; and this was not it.
"ORiley" he said, this isn't the rock you
got your sample from"
For lust a moment Lost Dutchman O'Riley
let his embarrassment check his enthusiasm.
He coughed twice and shifted his feet. Now
that we've actually found it and you can see
that it's rich" he said, IT suppose I may as
well admit that the sample showed you didn't
come from here. know as well as anybody"
he said that there's nothing quite so exciting
as plain, free gold, so just run in that other
sample to make my story more interesting"
O'Riley's enthusiasm surged up again mag
nificently "You know what that is?" he
shouted.. "You know what that lisp" He ex-
tended the gray and black rock fragments to
Steve once more in hands that shook with ex-
element. That's graphite delirium Graphite
delrium, mani"
Graphite what?" said Steve