“You are bright by nature as well as by name, Oliver,” said his father with a faint smile. “I think you will stand a fair chance of making your way.”
“I hope so. Any way, I intend to try. But, father, won’t you tell me something of your affairs?”
“Yes, Oliver; I intend to tell you as much as you can understand. It may prove a useful lesson to you.” Mr. Bright ran his hand over his forehead as if to collect his thoughts. “About a year after I sold out my interest in the Franklin Book Company and settled here, I became acquainted with Colonel Mendix. Do you remember him?”
“Oh, yes. He was a dark, Spanish gentleman, with a heavy black beard.”
“You are right, saving that he was far from being a gentleman, though I did not know that at the time. This Mendix was introduced to me by James Barr, an intimate friend of mine, who was a surveyor and who had become interested in several mining schemes.”
“I remember him also.”
“This Mendix visited me several times, and finally unfolded to me a simple plan for making a fortune on the outlay of a comparatively small sum of money. As you say, he was of Spanish descent, his people coming from some place in South America. He had also a number of relatives among the early settlers in California, who, you know, settled there before the gold fever broke out.”
“Yes, I have heard of those Spanish settlements.”
“Colonel Mendix said that among these relatives were two old men who had in their possession a paper containing the full directions for reaching and locating a very valuable mine somewhere up among the mountains. These two men were too old to work the mine themselves, and they were willing to sell out their secret and rights for ten thousand dollars, to be paid when the mine was located and found to be as they represented.”