“Well, it’s just a round bed of bricks, with a two-foot wall ’round it. I’d build that the first thing, if I was you, and put in the rubbish, a little at a time. You want to put in some quicksilver with it. Then I’d get a horse or a mule ter drag ’round a weight till the bricks and mortar was well crushed.”
“Would you put the stuff in wet or dry?”
“Wet; and you want consid’able water, too. I tell you, it’s pretty to see how the quicksilver’ll pick up ’most every mite of gold and hug to the bottom with it!”
Ben’s eyes shone. “It must be!” he said. “And afterwards—what do you do next? I’ve heard, but I’ve kind of forgotten just what comes next.”
“You throw off your coarse stuff from the top and strain the quicksilver through buckskin.”
“Will it go through?”
“Will it? Well, you just ought ter see it come through the buckskin till there’s little looking-glass tears all over it.”
“And after that?”
“Well, you finish it all off in a retort with a long tube. Build a fire under it, and your quicksilver that’s left will ’vaporate, leavin’ the gold behind.”