dilated eyes saw the yellow particles still glistening unchanged in
the centre of the shovel, which was beginning to redden.



CHAPTER XI.

Suddenly--was the glistening yellow mineral taking fire? It began
to give off sulphurous fumes. And drifting away with them were all
Birt's golden visions and Nate's ill-gotten wealth--ending in smoke!

The sulphurous odor grew stronger. Even Towse stopped short, and
gazed at the shovel with a reprehensive sniff.

"Ker-shoo!" he sneezed.

And commenting thus, he turned abruptly and went hastily out, with a
startled look and a downcast tail.

His sneeze seemed to break the spell of silence that had fallen on
the little group.

"It be mighty nigh bodaciously changed ter cinders!" exclaimed Birt,
staring in amaze at the lustreless contents of the shovel from which
every suggestion of golden glimmer had faded. "What do it be, ef
'tain't gold?"

"Iron pyrites," said the professor. "'Fools' gold,' it is often
called."