“What’s that?” cried a fussy old gentleman, who had just come up, having only a few minutes before heard of the odd discovery. “You found gold, and think it came from quartz?”
“That’s my theory,” said Mr. Brill.
“Let me look at what you found,” said the old gentleman, and the miner did so. The old gentleman chuckled. Then he exclaimed:
“Well, I never. If this isn’t odd!”
“What is it?” asked Jerry.
“Why this is gold all right, but it isn’t from any gold quartz. It’s from my gold watch. It fell out of my pocket as I got off the train the other day, and rolled on the track. Before I could rescue it the train started and rolled over it. It was caught on the rails and ground to pieces, and some particles fell in the ballast. That’s where your gold is from. I was in a hurry at the time, and as the watch was not a very valuable one I did not report it to Mr. Hitter, but went off home. I just returned from a trip, and I heard about this excitement. But that gold is from my watch as sure as anything. I recognize a small piece that had my initials on it—see,” and he showed a bit of engraving.
“That’s right,” agreed Jim Nestor, slowly.
“It sure is,” assented his partner. “The gold strike has fizzled out.”
There was a groan of disappointment from the crowd.