“Ah! I didn’t say the word,” said Briscoe, laughing, as he glanced forward at the backs of Lynton and the men. “But that’s what it is. I knew it. I’m not going to talk and make a fuss; but that bit you’ve got hold of would crush and give as much as a couple of pounds of gold a ton.”
“You amaze me,” said Sir Humphrey.
“It amazes P Franklyn Briscoe,” said their companion. “Shall I put this in my pocket, or throw it away?”
“Keep it,” said Sir Humphrey, “and we’ll show it to the captain. I don’t see why we should not take back as much of the richest ore as the boats will carry. Let’s see what he’ll say.”
“Yes; let’s do so,” said Briscoe; “but it seems queer, doesn’t it, that there should have been people living who could make a town like this, and then for hundreds or thousands of years poor simple Indians going on shooting and fishing while all this wealth was waiting in the rocks if they had known what it was worth?”
“They could not have been so advanced a people as the Mexicans and Peruvians,” said Brace.
“Seems not,” said Briscoe drily, as he thrust the piece of ore in his pocket and followed the men to where they could descend to the boats.
That evening, as the party sat together in front of one of the lower cells, looking at the beauties of the reflections from the river on the far side of the cañon opposite, Brace waited till the attention of the men, who were at a little distance from them, was quite averted, and said softly:
“Show the captain the piece of curious rock you picked up to-day, Briscoe.”
“Eh?” said the captain: “bit of curious rock! I picked up a bit too.”