handle, he was grinding up a lot of dusty ore.

"Greeting, Van," said he. "Come in."

Van shook his outstretched hand.

"I thought I'd like to see those results," he said, "--that rock I
fetched you last, remember? You thought you could finish the batch
last week. Gold rock from the 'See Saw' claim that I bought three
weeks ago."

"Yes, oh yes. Now what did I do with---- Finished 'em up and put 'em
away somewhere," said the assayer, dusting his hands and moving towards
his desk. "Such a lot of stuff's been coming in--here they are, I
reckon." He drew a half dozen small printed forms from a cavity in the
desk, glanced them over briefly and handed the lot to Van. "Nothing
doing. Pretty good rock for building purposes."

"Nothing doing?" echoed Van incredulously, staring at the assay records
which showed in merciless bluntness that six different samples of
reputed ore had proved to be absolutely worthless. "The samples you
assayed first showed from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars to the
ton, in gold."

"What's that got to do with this?" inquired the master of acids and
fire. "You don't mean to say----"

"Do with it, man? It all came out of the same identical prospect," Van
interrupted. "These were later samples than the others, that's all."