“The company got tired of it too, and I kept writing such discouraging letters, and, besides, the sheriff came on me, and seized everything; so that they finally told me to come home. I left the place suddenly, took the stage coach, and started east.
“I had a back seat in the coach, and right in front of me were two men who were talking about the mines. They spoke of various things that did not interest me much, but finally one of them referred to the Ready Return Mine, which was the one I had been running.
TRICKS ON A GREENHORN.
“One of these fellows laughed, and said, ‘I wish we had gone to see the Ready Return Mine. Jim Jackson says it is the funniest thing alive. There is a sailor there, superintendent of the mine, who does not know any more about mining than you do about the Ten Commandments. He came out there, pretended to be very wise, and set the boys to crushing wall rock—nothing but the meanest wall rock—with not an ounce of gold in a thousand tons of it. Well, they let him keep on, as there was not any gold there any way; and I reckon he has about spent all the company’s money, and will have to bust pretty soon. They have a good deal of fun with him, and play all sorts of tricks on him. I wish we had gone there, and seen the fellow. When the mine busts completely, they are going to lower him down the shaft, under some pretext, then haul up the bucket, and let him stay a day or two, to teach him something about mining.’
“When I heard this,” said my aquatic friend, “I made up my mind that I had had enough of that business; and then I knew how those fellows had been gagging me. You won’t catch me at a gold mine again.”
GROUND SLUICING.