“Your check is good enough for me, Mr. Morning.”
“Very well. Then you can go to the San Xavier reservation early in the morning and make a bargain with the Papagoes for three months. Obtain forty good men and agree to furnish them with rations and pay them $1.25 a day. They have ponies, I suppose, and can take their squaws along if they choose. It will make them more contented to stay. You might contract with them also to furnish enough cattle to supply themselves with fresh meat. They can drive them along, and there is now plenty of grass in the ravines. Don’t let them come to Tuscon, for I don’t wish the people here to know what I am doing. The Indians can strike across from San Xavier by Fort Lowell and meet us, or wait for us at the mouth of the Rillito. You can return here as soon as you start them, and we will buy teams and load them with supplies, and drive them out ourselves. We will do all the blacksmith work and blasting ourselves. And, Bob, keep your own counsel strictly about everything. I have reasons for secrecy which I will explain to you later.”
“All right, Mr. Morning. I don’t clearly see what you are driving at. It’s a queer way to open a copper mine, but you are the captain, and I’ve known you a long time, and whatever you say goes with Bob Steel.”
It was three o’clock the next afternoon before Steel returned from San Xavier. He was well known to the Papagoes, having often purchased grain and animals from them for mining companies with which he had been connected as superintendent. His mission was successful, and Manuel Pacheco, a leader among the Indians, had agreed to have the necessary force at the place designated on the third “sun up.”
Tuscon, although not a mining town, is a commercial center for a dozen mining camps, and there was nothing in the outfitting of a party of miners calculated to attract especial notice. Two wagons and twelve mules were purchased, with all needed supplies, and Morning and Steel drove away to their destination, where they met the Indians and proceeded to the old copper-camp. After supper Morning opened the conversation which he had determined to have with Steel.
“Bob,” said he, “to tell the truth, I do not intend to work this copper property at present, though I shall need it by and by for a purpose I will not now explain. I bought it mainly because I knew you intended to sell it to somebody, and I wished to keep others away from this vicinity. I have another use for the powder and the Indians, and, if you will accept the offer I am about to make, I have another service for you. I selected you because I know you are as true and as bright as your name. If you will work with me and for me in this cañon as I require, I will give you a salary of $1,000 a month for three years, and at the end of that time I will pay you—don’t think I am crazy—I will pay you $1,000,000. What do you say to my proposition?”
“You take away my breath,” rejoined Steel. “If I did not know you so well, I should say that you had been boozing on mescal, or were otherwise off your nut. But you don’t talk usually without meaning what you say, and I reckon you are in earnest. But there is nothing that I can do to earn $1,000,000, or $1,000 a month either.”
“Oh, yes, there is,” said Morning, “as you will agree when you know all, or at least all that I intend to tell you! Listen: When I was up the cañon while we were here last week, I discovered and located a rich gold quartz lode that was uncovered by the waterspout. It is very rich and extensive—indeed, there are many millions in sight in the croppings. It was through my coming here to look at your copper lodes that I was led to its discovery, and in a certain way I consider you have a right to some profit from it, and I can well afford to give you a million dollars for your services and your silence, or several millions, if you want that much. The ledge is so rich that the first thing to do is to conceal it. No person but myself knows its extent or value, and I shall not disclose these even to you. When I commence working it and turning out bullion, people will be curious, and they will badger you to tell them all about. The elder Rothschild is credited with the aphorism that no man can tell what he does not know, and if you really don’t know the extent of the Morning mine, it will be a good deal easier for you to baffle the curious. I propose that you shall not look at the ledge or go into the box cañon where it is. Will you agree to that?”
“Oh, I am agreeable!” said Steel. “I appreciate your reasons, and, anyway, it’s none of my business.”
Morning then explained to Steel the situation of the cañon where he had found the lode, and the manner of its discovery, but was silent as to its dimensions or the quantity of gold contained in the rock. He informed him as to his plan of operations, which was to pack all the supplies and tools on the backs of the animals as far up the cañon as it was possible thus to go, and there make a permanent camp. The Indians were then to carry the tools, powder, and a supply of provisions upon their backs up to the summit of the basalt wall near the rift, where another camp would be made.