"What! A vein?"
"I fell right down upon it. Just look there!"
Murray looked, half carelessly at first, like a man who had before that day discovered plenty of such things; but then he sprung forward.
"We're in the gold country," he said; "it's all gold-bearing quartz hereaway. Steve! Steve! I declare I never saw such a vein as that. The metal stands out in nuggets."
So it did. A strip of rock nearly five feet wide was dotted and spangled with bits of dull yellow. It seemed to run right across the cañon at the edge of that level, and disappear in the solid cliffs on either side.
"Oh, what a vein!"
"It's really gold, then?"
"Gold? Of course it is. But it isn't of any use."
"Why not?"
"Who could mine for it away down here in the Apache country? How could they get machinery down here? Why, a regiment of soldiers couldn't keep off the redskins, and every pound of gold would cost two pounds before you could get it to a mint."