doesn't touch ground anywhere."

"Stanley--my poor deluded boy!--when I got to the railroad I wired that
assayer right off. Our samples never reached El Paso. So I wrote out my
fake location and filed it. See what followed that filing--over yonder? I
come this way on purpose, expecting to see those fires, Stanley. If they
hadn't been there we'd have gone on to our mine. Now we'll go anywhere
else."

"Well, I'll just be teetotally damned!" Stanley remarked with great
fervor.

"Trickling into your thick skull, is it? Son, get a piece of charcoal.
Now you make black marks on that white rock as I tell you, to hold
down my statements so they don't flutter away with the wind. Ready?
Number One: Our copper samples didn't reach the assayer--make a long
black mark ... Therefore--make a short black mark ... Number Two:
Either Old Pete's crazy theory is correct in every particular--a long
black mark ... Or--now a short black mark ... Number Three: The assayer
has thrown us down--a long black mark ... Number Four: Which would
be just as bad--make a long black mark."




CHAPTER IV


Stanley Mitchell looked hard at the long black mark; he looked out along
the south to the low line of the Gavilan Hills; he looked at the red arc