his saddle-bags, half listlessly, a precious phial encased in wood,
and, opening it, poured into another thick glass vessel part of a
smoking fluid; he then crumbled some of the calcined fragments into
the glass, and watched the ebullition that followed with mechanical
gravity. When it had almost ceased he drained off the contents
into another glass, which he set down, and then proceeded to pour
some water from his drinking-flask into the ordinary tin cup which
formed part of his culinary traveling-kit. Into this he put three
or four pinches of salt from his provision store. Then dipping his
fingers into the salt and water, he allowed a drop to fall into the
glass. A white cloud instantly gathered in the colorless fluid,
and then fell in a fine film to the bottom of the glass. Key's
eyes concentrated suddenly, the listless look left his face. His
fingers trembled lightly as he again let the salt water fall into
the solution, with exactly the same result! Again and again he
repeated it, until the bottom of the glass was quite gray with the
fallen precipitate. And his own face grew as gray.

His hand trembled no longer as he carefully poured off the solution
so as not to disturb the precipitate at the bottom. Then he drew
out his knife, scooped a little of the gray sediment upon its
point, and emptying his tin cup, turned it upside down upon his
knee, placed the sediment upon it, and began to spread it over the
dull surface of its bottom with his knife. He had intended to rub
it briskly with his knife blade. But in the very action of
spreading it, the first stroke of his knife left upon the sediment
and the cup the luminous streak of burnished silver!

He stood up and drew a long breath to still the beatings of his
heart. Then he rapidly re-climbed the rock, and passed over the