“This here is a queer country,” he observed. “You’re prospecting for gold hereabouts, of course. But d’you know, Shea, the old prospecting business is changed? Yes, it is. Nowadays two thirds of the prospectors turn up their noses at gold. There are new things in the field, things that pay better than gold.
“Platinum, for instance; or tungsten or manganese. Take my own case—I’m one of a dozen men sent out by a big New York chemical house. I’m after strontium. It comes in two forms, celestite and strontianite. Celestite brings about twenty dollars a ton at seaboard; but strontianite, when converted into nitrates, brings five hundred. The average old-time prospector hasn’t the chemical knowledge to find such things as those.”
“Maybe,” said Shea, reflectively. “But yonder hillock, black against the stars, holds in its deep heart veins of mineral; and in those veins, my friend, there runs an ichor bearing the self-same name as that you seek.”
Logan stared over this for a moment. Then:
“By jasper! D’you mean that you’ve got strontianite here?”
“So they do tell me,” averred Shea, modestly. He added with frankness, that while he held a third interest in the claim, he knew little of minerals.
Logan displayed a cordial and friendly interest, and asked to see samples. Shea found one or two and set them forth, telling what he knew of the veins. The interest of the visitor grew and waxed enthusiastic. Logan examined the samples closely, and then his gray eyes suddenly struck up at Shea.
“Look here!” he exclaimed, eagerly. “Would you, provided the veins and so forth run as you describe them, accept ten thousand dollars cash for your interest in this location?”
To Thady Shea this offer came like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
“You see,” pursued Logan, “a deposit like this would answer my company’s purposes admirably. We might never find another like it. Ten thousand is not a large offer, but it would be a year or more before you’d begin to pull money out of the property. Say yes, and I’ll examine the location to-morrow; if it’s what you say, I’ll buy your right and interest in the property, sign the papers, and before to-morrow night you’ll cash my check.”