when I first saw it; I got cheated, same as you. But there's no sand to
it; it's just _tailings_."

"What in the world is tailings?" asked Kyzie, taking up another handful
and looking it over very carefully. Strange if she, a girl in her teens,
couldn't tell sand when she saw it! But she politely refrained from
making any more remarks, and waited for Nate to answer her question. He
was an intelligent boy, between eleven and twelve.

"Well, tailings are just powdered rocks," said Nate.

"Powdered rocks? Who powdered them? What for?" asked Edith.

"Why, the miners did it years ago. They ground up the rocks in the mine
into powder just as fine as they could, and then washed the powder to
get the gold out."

"Oh, I see," said Edith. "So these tailings are what's left after the
gold's washed out."

"Yes, they brought 'em and spread 'em 'round here to get rid of 'em I
suppose."

"Is the gold all washed out, every bit?" asked Jimmy. "Seems as if I
could see a little shine to it now."

"Well, they got out all they could. There may be a little dust of it
left though. Mr. Templeton says the folks in 'Frisco that own the mine
think there's _some_ left, and the tailings ought to be sent to San
Diego and worked over."