Part 2 (1/2)
Concho looked guilty at having gulped down so much cash. Then he said timidly:
”I have no money, but I have got here what is fine and jolly. It is yours.” And he handed over the contents of the precious tin can he had brought with him.
The Doctor took it, looked at the s.h.i.+vering volatile ma.s.s and said, ”Why this is quicksilver!”
Concho laughed, ”Yes, very quick silver, so!” and he snapped his fingers to show its sprightliness.
The Doctor's face grew earnest; ”Where did you get this, Concho?” he finally asked.
”It ran from the pot in the mountains beyond.”
The Doctor looked incredulous. Then Concho related the whole story.
”Could you find that spot again?”
”Madre de Dios, yes,--I have a mule there; may the devil fly away with her!”
”And you say your comrades saw this?”
”Why not?”
”And you say they afterwards left you,--deserted you?”
”They did, ingrates!”
The Doctor arose and shut his office door. ”Hark ye, Concho,” he said, ”that bit of medicine I gave you just now was worth a dollar, it was worth a dollar because the material of which it was composed was made from the stuff you have in that can,--quicksilver or mercury. It is one of the most valuable of metals, especially in a gold-mining country.
My good fellow, if you know where to find enough of it, your fortune is made.”
Concho rose to his feet.
”Tell me, was the rock you built your furnace of red?”
”Si, Senor.”
”And brown?”
”Si, Senor.”
”And crumbled under the heat?”
”As to nothing.”
”And did you see much of this red rock?”
”The mountain mother is in travail with it.”
”Are you sure that your comrades have not taken possession of the mountain mother?”
”As how?”
”By claiming its discovery under the mining laws, or by pre-emption?”