Phil’s face was flushed and his eyes were very bright, but he made a visible effort to calm himself as he approached.
The boys and their host passed cordial morning greetings, and then Phil said carelessly:
“Such a fine sheet of water is something of a surprise in such a spot. Did you build the dam, Mr. Brunt?”
“Not I,” replied the storekeeper. “There’s a story to that. They say a mining inspector named John Martin, who took in Placer Notch on his circuit twenty-five years ago, saw this hollow when he first passed by and got the idea into his head that if he could trap the muddy water that ran off from the sluices and thus collect the tailings, in the course of time the mass of mud in the bottom would pan out rich from the gold that was constantly going to waste. He located this place in the land office, and had the dam built. Before he could take title he disappeared while on his rounds, and was never again heard of. I finally got the title myself, for it struck me that perhaps some day if the country around here grew up and there was any use for it, I could use the pond for water power: or I could drain it off and plant on the bottom, which ought to be the richest kind of soil. There’s thirty feet of mud on that bottom, I calculate.”
“He must have had a tremendous job to build a dam that would make a pond over thirty feet deep,” commented Tom.
“No; it wasn’t such a big job. Luck was with him and started the work. Just before Martin began, a landslide filled up the narrow space between the two mountains where they come together. You can see this from the other side of the dam. There wasn’t much left to be done; he drove some logs and did some filling in; the stream gradually filled up the hollow, and when the water rose as high as the dam it began to run off down the pass just as it used to, leaving a deposit on the bottom of the basin that has been rising ever since.”
“But, Mr. Brunt,” asked Phil indifferently, “haven’t you ever thought of following up the inspector’s idea of separating the gold that is in the bottom?”
“I can’t say I have—not seriously. There must be a great deal of the dust there, but the proportion is so small that I guess it wouldn’t be worth while to waste any money on such a scheme.”
Hearing this, Tom cast a sly glance at Phil as if to say, “What did I tell you?” but he saw that Phil was driving at something and he had sense enough to say nothing.