A moment later the detective sat down, a little way from the group around the muller-board.
When ready to knock the ashes from the cigarette, he brought out a silver match case, emptied it of matches, and carefully deposited the ashes inside.
When he had finished the cigarette, Gillman was “quartering down” the sample.
The powdered ore was then mixed with fluxes, put into little, earthenware dishes, and shoved into a furnace.
When the dishes were drawn from the furnace, there was a drop of bullion in each one.
This drop was put into a glass parting flask with nitric acid, the flask was heated, and the gold in the drop of bullion was separated from the other metals.
All that then remained was to weigh it.
This was done on a pair of scales so finely adjusted that they would weigh a pencil mark on a scrap of paper.
In two hours’ time Cupell had signed the assay certificates, and Montgomery and the Boston men were wildly jubilant.